Pudu Debuts 23-Joint D7 Semi-Humanoid and D5-W Quadruped

Pudu Robotics, the Chinese vendor behind commercial fixtures like the "cat-faced BellaBot," used IFA 2026 in Berlin to step outside service robots into two new form factors. Robotics and Automation News reports that the D7 semi-humanoid "concentrates its 23 joints in its arms, waist and head" and can lift loads up to 20 kg, while the D5-W wheel-and-leg quadruped carries payloads up to 30 kg.

Neither robot walks on two legs. The D7 spends its joint budget on manipulation rather than locomotion; the D5-W switches between wheels and articulated legs to climb stairs and uneven terrain, and "can also recover autonomously after falling." An upgraded CC1 Pro cleaner shown alongside them "inspects areas it has cleaned and can return to sections that require additional work," and at the show Pudu demoed the D7 "taking the D5-W for a walk."

The context is distribution, not novelty. Pudu operates more than 130,000 robots across 85+ countries, and Frost & Sullivan ranked it "the world's largest commercial service robot company by both revenue and shipments in 2025." The launches land in a steady run of robotics coverage, 162 stories across our tracker in the last 90 days, in which incumbent service-robot vendors keep inching toward manipulation and legged locomotion.