Kepler K2
About
About Kepler K2
Kepler K2 is a Forerunner-series humanoid platform offered in basic, bipedal development and wheeled development configurations. Kepler combines its own planetary roller-screw and rotary actuators with a shared upper-body architecture for manufacturing, logistics, exhibition and research work. Development versions add eleven-joint dexterous hands, wrist force sensing and access to the software development platform.
The current configuration table distinguishes a30-joint basic robot from52-joint development versions. The bipedal and wheeled systems also have different mass and mobility, so their specifications apply separately. Kepler's software combines perception, task decisions and motion control, with simulation, debugging and data-collection tools for application development. Robots are supplied through direct sales consultation; industrial configurations and support can be customized around the intended workflow.
Capabilities
Source-backed capabilities
- Operating environments: automotive factory testing, ICRA2025 Atlanta booth, May19–23, ICRA2025 Atlanta venue, Intended factory and logistics workstations, Intended industrial sorting, Intended industrial assembly, Intended government exhibitions and visitor venues
- Control modes: Autonomous
- Navigation and obstacle avoidance
Demonstrated - 2025-06-03 - Navigate the ICRA venue with steady autonomous movement. - environment: ICRA2025 Atlanta venue
Source - Autonomous public interaction
Demonstrated - 2025-06-03 - Greet ICRA attendees with natural gestures. - environment: ICRA2025 Atlanta booth, May19–23
Source - Tour guiding
Claimed - Provide guided tours using the advertised language-command model. - environment: Intended government exhibitions and visitor venues
Source - Robotic inspection
Customer-site use - 2025-06-24 - Kepler Forerunner K2 operated at an SAIC-GM plant for quality checks and assembly support in a live automotive production environment. - environment: automotive factory testing
Source - Material handling
Claimed - Carry industrial loads and load or unload materials in configured workstations. - environment: Intended factory and logistics workstations
Source - Object sorting and classification
Claimed - Sort items from semantic task commands. - environment: Intended industrial sorting
Source - Robotic assembly
Claimed - Assemble components in configured industrial workflows. - environment: Intended industrial assembly
Source
Operations
- Production Setup
mass production and customer shipments started - 2025-09-26 - Kepler Robotics announced that K2 Bumblebee had started mass production and begun shipping to customers, but the release did not disclose a unit count.
Source
Deployments
- Customer Site
1 SAIC-GM factory testing site - 2025-06-24 - SAIC-GM - automotive factory testing - Kepler Forerunner K2 operated at an SAIC-GM plant for quality checks and assembly support in a live automotive production environment.
Source
Timeline
- Kepler announces K2 Bumblebee production and customer shipping
2025-09-26 - Production Milestone - The industrial humanoid combines planetary roller-screw linear actuators with rotary actuators in a serial-parallel architecture and was priced at RMB 248,000. Kepler reported framework agreements covering several thousand units across industrial services, data operations, exhibitions, manufacturing and specialized applications.
Source - Kepler’s K2 Bumblebee completes an eight-hour WAIC livestream
2025-07-27 - Demonstration - The program included dancing, blind-box retrieval, Pictionary and precision sorting in simulated industrial settings. Four K2 robots occupied demonstration zones for logistics sorting, material handling, automotive manufacturing and education or research.
Source - Kepler Forerunner K2 enters SAIC-GM factory testing
2025-06-24 - Deployment - Trial footage showed stamped-part loading and manipulation of mechanical fixtures, alongside factory quality checks. The robot used tactile hands and fingertip sensors; Kepler described imitation and reinforcement learning as part of its task-training approach.
Source - Kepler demonstrates K2 Bumblebee at ICRA 2025
2025-06-03 - Demonstration - The display ran during the May 19–23 conference; the robot greeted attendees with gestures and interacted with other robotic systems. The exhibited platform stood 175 cm tall, weighed 75 kg and combined 52 degrees of freedom with more than 80 sensors and 100 TOPS of onboard compute.
Source - Kepler debuts Forerunner K2 humanoid at GITEX 2024
2024-10-21 - Product Launch - Development input from nearly 50 target customers shaped testing in manufacturing, warehousing, high-risk operations, research and education. The K2 configuration combined 52 body degrees of freedom, tactile hands with 11 active and passive degrees of freedom each, and a 2.33 kWh battery.
Source
Context
Market context
Kepler K2 is Kepler Robotics' humanoid robot platform for embodied AI, bipedal locomotion and manipulation development.
- Target environment: Robotics labs, controlled commercial environments and humanoid development settings.
- Workflow context: Bipedal locomotion, whole-body control, manipulation, human-robot interaction and embodied AI development.
- Deployment model: Humanoid robot platform used for development, demonstrations and early task validation.
- Commercial maturity: Public humanoid product with company-provided product material.
- Adoption constraints: Requires controlled deployment, task-specific software, safety validation, manipulation maturity and customer-site integration.
- Market position: Humanoid platform positioned around Kepler's broader push into embodied robotics systems.
- Adjacent products: Humanoid robot for embodied AI research, bipedal movement and manipulation tasks.
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