D7 by Pudu vs Walker Tienkung by UBTECH

D7 is a 165 cm, 45 kg semi-humanoid on a wheeled base, with 30 degrees of freedom, or 50 with dexterous hands, in its arms and upper body. Walker Tienkung is a 172 cm, 73 kg biped with up to 42 degrees of freedom, including configurable 7-DoF arms. D7 is 28 kg lighter and its arms place their tips to within 0.1 mm across a 65 cm reach. Walker Tienkung spends more of its joints on legs, which lets it walk and climb.

D7's 360° omnidirectional chassis reaches 2 m/s and copes with slopes of up to 10°. Walker Tienkung moves at up to 7 km/h, about 1.9 m/s, and is built to handle stairs, slopes and uneven ground. Their top speeds are almost the same. The difference is terrain: D7 needs flat floors and ramps, while Tienkung can take on stairs and rough ground.

Walker Tienkung combines RGB and stereo cameras, LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors, an IMU and force sensors. Pudu has not published a sensor list for D7. Tienkung is therefore the easier robot to assess and build on for perception research. Ask Pudu for D7's sensor details before comparing the two.

D7 uses a hierarchical system in which high-level planning sets the strategy and low-level control reacts to sensor input in real time, and Pudu says it keeps refining its skills from data. Walker Tienkung can run autonomously or semi-autonomously, leaving research teams free to try their own control methods. D7 arrives with service skills such as lift operation. Tienkung is a platform for teams that want to develop their own.

D7's battery of more than 1 kWh gives over eight hours of continuous work. Walker Tienkung lasts more than 3.5 hours per charge, quick-swaps between two batteries and recharges in 2 hours. D7 lasts more than twice as long on a charge. Tienkung's quick battery swap closes some of that gap for teams with a spare pack.

D7 is meant for service spaces and industrial sites, where Pudu has it riding lifts, carrying items and sorting goods. Walker Tienkung is UBTECH's robot for scientific research, education, proof-of-concept projects, logistics trials and rescue research. D7 is a working service robot, while Tienkung is a research platform. Choose D7 for all-day service, lift operation and sorting on flat floors, or Walker Tienkung for research, education and proof-of-concept projects.

D7 runs Pudu's own embodied-AI system with high-level and low-level planning. Alongside UBTECH's own software, Walker Tienkung supports ROS 2, Python and C++. Tienkung is the clear choice for researchers who want to write their own code with standard tools. Pudu has not published D7's developer access.

Walker Tienkung is priced at around $65,000 to $115,000, while D7 sits in the $100,000 to $150,000 range. Tienkung is the cheaper of the two at the low end. D7's higher price buys eight-hour endurance and arms that each lift 10 kg, against Tienkung's light-duty 1.5 kg arms. For research budgets Tienkung offers more; for working service roles D7 earns its premium.

For work near people, Walker Tienkung has force limiting, collision detection, an emergency stop and a collaborative mode. Pudu has not published D7's safety features. D7's wheeled base does not need to balance the way a walking robot does, which removes the risk of a fall on flat floors. Tienkung's published collaborative features make it easier to assess for shared spaces.