159-pound humanoid robot that can handle factory materials presented in China

Topstar, a Dongguan-based maker of industrial robots, unveiled Star, a full-size bipedal humanoid built for factory material handling and sorting, at its TOPS DAY open day on Nov. 7.

Star stands 5 feet, 8 inches (172 centimeters) and weighs 159 pounds (72 kilograms), according to Topstar. It has seven-axis arms, meaning each arm moves along seven independent axes, and a dual-arm payload of 22 pounds (10 kilograms). The company’s machine-tool subsidiary, also launched the S400, a five-axis machine for making humanoid robot parts. A five-axis machine can angle a part or tool in two directions beyond the usual three, which helps cut curved surfaces.

Topstar already sells injection-molding equipment and CNC (computer numerical control) machine tools. Its Chinese website had listed a wheeled humanoid and a quadruped, but no biped, Pandaily reported. Rivals such as UBTech are already testing humanoids in factories. Topstar has shared no results from production use.

What Star is built to do

Topstar says Star’s cross-shaft wrists are meant to copy the postures workers use on production lines, and that the robot is designed to fit existing factory layouts without reworking them, Pandaily reported. The robot also records physical-scene data while it works, which Topstar plans to use to improve it over time. The company says the arms and wrists use high-precision joint modules, the actuator units that move each joint.

Huang Jing, general manager of Topstar’s robotics business, said the team has focused its embodied-AI work on three uses: sorting small batches of many product types, multi-step operations and material handling. Embodied AI means software that controls a physical machine.

The team also completed more than 30 scenario validations over the past year, Sina Tech reported. Topstar also named David Navarro, a professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, its chief scientist for embodied AI, and opened joint robotics labs with Great Bay University and Nanchang University. Navarro’s talk at the event covered moving industrial robotics from AI toward physical intelligence.

Open questions and the S400

Topstar did not disclose pricing, availability, battery life, walking speed or customer deployments for Star. The launch presentation described the robot’s intended jobs, not results from production use, so its performance in real factories remains unproven.

The S400 comes from a Topstar-controlled machine-tool subsidiary. It targets parts with complex curved surfaces, such as joints and housings, and is pitched for volume production. Sina Tech reported that Zhejiang Leiwang Technology agreed at the event to buy five-axis machines from the subsidiary for humanoid parts. The same report said Guangdong Levi has bought 100 of the subsidiary’s five-axis machines since 2023 for humanoid components.

Founder Wu Fengli framed both products as an “AI serving AI” strategy: using AI in Topstar’s own equipment while supplying manufacturing tools to companies that build AI hardware and robots. Topstar has not said when Star will reach customers.

Topstar announced both products at TOPS DAY 2026 on Nov. 7, according to Pandaily, Jiemian and Sina Tech.