T800 and G1: the two machines humanoid robot fighting runs on

Eleven leagues are on this record, and two machines do most of the work. The Unitree G1 and the EngineAI T800 are not rivals in any one ring. They are the platforms that different parts of the sport are built on, and they are very different robots. As of 13 October 2026, this is what the record holds on each.

UNITREE G1: THE SMALL, CHEAP ONE

The G1 is made by Unitree Robotics of Hangzhou. The record lists it at 132 cm and 35 kg with 23 degrees of freedom, and at about $13,500. It is child-sized. It is also the machine most humanoid fighting has been staged on: all four robots in the first Iron Fist King tournament were G1s, and Ultimate Bots (UFB) assigns the G1 to its Season 2 teams. UFB also uses the Booster T1 alongside it.

ENGINEAI T800: THE FULL-SIZE ONE

The T800 is made by EngineAI of Shenzhen. The record lists it at 173 cm and 75 kg with 29 degrees of freedom, with reported weights of 75 to 85 kg: the size of a grown man. URKL, EngineAI's own league, issues an identical T800 to every competing team free of charge and asks teams to differentiate on algorithms alone. Ten T800s fought at CyberHero's Riyadh launch, and RFC's 9 October showcase in Singapore used T800-class robots.

WHAT THE SIZE GAP CHANGES

A G1 bout and a T800 bout are different events to watch. The G1 is cheap enough that a league can field many of them and let a wide pool of pilots drive; this is the logic behind UFB offering pilot access widely. The T800 is a machine whose hits read as hits, which is most of why a T800 fight looks different to a G1 fight. EngineAI's design is also the reason URKL can run as an engineering contest: with the hardware fixed and supplied, the variable is the software and the team behind it.

The two machines also sit with different people at the controls. UFB pilots its G1s and T1s with game controllers and a browser; URKL runs the T800 under hybrid control, where an operator issues commands and the robot executes them. Our earlier article on who drives fighting robots covers those methods.

THE SHARED EXPOSURE: UNITED STATES RULES

Both makers carry United States regulatory questions, and they are not the same. For the G1, the record notes it was certified before the FCC's 28 July 2026 Covered List notice, so existing authorizations stand and used units and continued operation are unaffected; future Unitree models are the exposure. For the T800, the record notes it reportedly had no FCC equipment authorization on record as of August 2026. Unitree was also added to the US Department of War's Section 1260H list in June 2026, a designation that binds the Department, not private buyers.

WHAT IS NOT SETTLED

Machine specifications on this record are the makers' own or reported figures, and the T800's weight is given as a range. How autonomous the T800 is in URKL is still disputed in the sources. The record does not claim that either machine is better for fighting, only that between them they carry most of the sport.

For specifications and the full list of makers, see the machines page on this site.