Pudu Robotics, the Chinese startup best known for its cat-eared restaurant robot BellaBot, is moving outdoors for its next phase of growth, a shift its CEO said marks the company’s broader push beyond hospitality into logistics, inspections, and public safety applications.
“In Japan, due to its seriously aging population and declining birthrate, the main issue is a shortage of workers for many jobs,” founder and CEO Felix Zhang told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. “Robots primarily serve to fill this labor gap, whether for cleaning, delivery, inspection or transportation.”
Founded in 2016 and based in Shenzhen, Pudu Robotics has shipped over 100,000 robots to more than 80 countries, working through a network of over 700 distributor partners globally. Its current lineup spans food delivery, cleaning, logistics and, more recently, humanoid robots.
Close to 80% of its sales come from overseas, with shipments to Europe accounting for just over 30%, followed by the Americas and Asia excluding China at around 20%, respectively.
Now, with the launch of its four-legged industrial robot, dubbed D5, Pudu is pushing further into outdoor and rugged environments. The quadruped robot, unveiled in Tokyo last week, is designed for tasks like facility inspection, last-mile delivery and perimeter patrols.
“A major advantage of our robotic dog over competitors’ products is its fully autonomous navigation capability, requiring no human intervention or remote control,” Zhang said.
The robot, about a meter tall, uses a combination of fisheye cameras, LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors, and a high-performance computing platform powered by Nvidia’s Orin chip to map complex environments and navigate them independently. A single charge allows it to travel up to 14 kilometers.
Built for all-terrain and all-weather use, it can reach speeds of five meters per second, climb 30-degree slopes, and step over obstacles 25 centimeters high. The robot can carry up to 30 kilograms for more than two hours, making it suited for last-mile delivery, especially from trucks to buildings or homes.
But Zhang is quick to position the D5 as just one piece of a larger playbook. “Right now, most of our research and development resources are focused on commercial cleaning machines and industrial delivery models,” he said, noting that these are still in early stages of commercialization compared to the company’s now-mature restaurant robot segment.
He described Pudu’s development approach as a “spiral upward,” where resources are reallocated as product lines mature and newer categories emerge. “We began with commercial delivery robots, and now we are deepening our investment into industrial and embodied intelligence categories,” he said.
The company also sees growing interest in humanoid and semi-humanoid robots, both for functional tasks and entertainment, although Zhang acknowledged that the former still require “significant” technical development.
For the D5 series, Pudu is targeting initial production of at least 1,000 units next year. Manufacturing will remain in China for now, where the company operates three factories. Zhang said Pudu is evaluating its first overseas production site, though no decision has been made.
In Japan, Pudu aims to release the D5 as early as April next year, pending local certifications. The expected retail price is around JPY 6–7 million or around USD 38,000–45,000, with dealers offering leasing or rental options to reduce upfront costs.
While geopolitical tensions between China and Japan have escalated in recent months, Zhang said the impact on Pudu’s business has been limited so far.
“We can only speak from a business perspective, and we haven’t noticed much difference,” he said. “Customers definitely want good quality products and don’t pay much attention to which country the product comes from.”
Zhang also downplayed the impact of US-China trade tensions. “Our sales performance in the US this year has grown several times despite tariff challenges,” he said.
Pudu is reportedly nearing breakeven after nearly a decade of operations, and Zhang confirmed that the company is preparing for an IPO, though he declined to provide a timeline.
“Globally, the penetration rate of our B2B robots is still probably under 5%,” he said. “There’s tremendous room for growth.”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.