The Zhitong Finance App learned that in 2026, the leading four-legged robot companies will usher in a critical window of accelerated commercialization. On the one hand, they will continue to cultivate the entertainment, science and education circuit, and continue to expand their domestic and overseas markets; on the other hand, leading technology companies have accelerated their penetration into various vertical industries, and their products have gradually achieved large-scale deployment and carried out key operations in core fields such as security patrolling, industrial inspection, fire response, logistics and transportation. In the first half of the year, global shipments of four-legged robots approached 35,000 units, 40% of which came from industry applications, and demand for medium and large four-legged robot equipment increased significantly.
Global quadruped robot shipments by manufacturer, first half of 2026
Source: Counterpoint Research Robotics Research
On the manufacturer side, Yushu Technology ranked first with a market share of 37%. The commercialization of the YuShu four-legged robot began early. It has gradually developed a rich product and technology matrix, and a relatively complete secondary development ecosystem around the two major tracks of entertainment, science and education. Furthermore, it has accumulated a large number of customers at home and abroad in the field of scientific research and education. In addition to the first-mover advantage, with self-developed core hardware and motion control algorithms, Yuki's small four-legged robot products have achieved high gross profit margins throughout the industry. On this basis, in the first half of 2026, entertainment, science and education applications accounted for more than 70% of YuShu's four-legged robot shipments. On the other hand, compared to entertainment, science and education tracks, Yushu's growth rate in the industry was weak. In the same period, it occupied 17.6% of the global industry's four-legged robot market segment, ranking fourth.
Zhiyuan Cooltra was formally established in August 2025. Its business was born out of Zhiyuan's Lingxi product line and inherited Zhiyuan's full-stack technical capabilities. Zhiyuan Cooltop focuses on core industry application scenarios and quickly launched a complete product matrix covering small to medium to large models. It is one of the four-legged robot brands with the most prominent growth in 2026 to now. In the first half of 2026, Zhiyuan Cooltra won 16.3% of the market share in one fell swoop. In the industry, the four-legged robot market segment ranked first in the world in terms of shipment volume. Looking at the shipping structure, the B-side market in the industry with greater potential and higher stand-alone value accounts for nearly 70%, and the overseas market also accounts for 40% of overall shipments, and the customer structure tends to be diverse. Thanks to forward-looking product planning and market layout, the growth of Zhiyuan Cool Tuo is not simply an expansion of scale, but a simultaneous increase in scale and quality.
Zhishen Technology continues to rely on its strong manufacturing capabilities for complete machines and core components to expand the B-side industry, science and education, and emergency rescue scenarios with the “Steel Hammer” + “Bronze Hammer” dual product line strategy. Zhishen Technology's shipment market share in the first half of 2026 reached 12.6%, ranking third in the world for four-legged robot shipments. Among them, the “Bronze Hammer” series of heavy-duty models were shipped, mainly targeting high-load and complex operation scenarios such as electricity and fire protection, demonstrating the ability of Zhishen Technology to serve vertical fields and create customized industry solutions.
Yunshen Technology continues to focus on the industry circuit, ranking second in the industry's four-legged robot market segment with a 26% share. In the fields of electricity, fire emergency, etc., Yunshen has a certain first-mover advantage, and has accumulated a large number of experience in the implementation, operation and maintenance of government and enterprise customers and projects. For B-side customers, in addition to delivering a highly reliable four-legged robot body, Cloud Deep can also provide integrated industry solutions based on customer scenario requirements. Entering 2026, demand for the “Bobcat” series has increased significantly. Its wheel foot composite design can better meet the needs of outdoor long-distance inspection, further consolidating the competitiveness of the Yunshen Electric Power Inspection Track.
Demand from the vertical industry has exploded, which will continue to inject momentum into the growth of the four-legged robot industry
Currently, commercialization of small-sized, low-load (dynamic load ≤ 20kg) four-legged robots is progressing relatively fast. Relying on standardized chassis designs, they are also easier to deploy. The products are mainly used in commercial performances, scientific research and education, family companionship, lightweight security patrolling, underground integrated pipe gallery inspection and other industrial application scenarios. In addition, small-sized four-legged robots with compact airframes and the ability to cross obstacles also have considerable potential for growth in emerging scenarios such as logistics transportation and guide services.
The biggest application area for medium to large, heavy duty four-legged robots is still inspection of complex environments such as industry, electricity, and mining. The product not only has greater durability, but also has a higher IP protection level, and the dynamic walking payload can reach more than 20 kg. As a carrier platform, the four-legged robot can be equipped with various types of sensors such as depth cameras, lidars, gas detectors, and thermal imaging cameras according to actual operation requirements, to achieve 3D panoramic sensing, AI scene recognition, and decision-making by integrating multiple sensors. In addition, for scenarios such as firefighting and post-disaster search and rescue, functional modules such as robotic arms, laser cutting, and wireless base stations can be installed to enrich on-site operation methods.
Of the 35,000 four-legged robots shipped in the first half of 2026, roughly one of every five is a medium to large model. As the momentum of industry growth shifts from entertainment, science and education scenarios to B-end industry applications, the importance of heavy-duty industry-level four-legged robot tracks is becoming more and more prominent. At the same time, competition among leading companies is shifting from simply competing for the sports performance of the main body to focusing on the delivery capacity of vertical scene solutions. In the first half of the year, Zhiyuan Cooltra achieved leapfrog growth and joined hands with Yunshen to form the first tier of the heavy-duty, industry-class four-legged robot circuit. Representative products include the D1 MaxPro and the Extraordinary X Series with four-legged designs, as well as the D1 Max and Bobcat M series with a composite wheel foot. These products not only have the essential performance required for complex work scenarios, such as high load-to-weight ratio, long battery life, excellent protection level, and complex terrain movement ability, but can also rely on rich standardized expansion interfaces, combine various sensing and operation modules, and self-developed industry task software modules to build platform-based solutions for vertical work scenarios in different industries.
Thanks to the commercial breakthroughs of leading four-legged robot manufacturers in the field of entertainment, science and education, Counterpoint Research predicts that in 2026, global quadruped robot shipments will exceed 90,000 units for the first time, and annual revenue is expected to reach 1.5 billion US dollars. Among them, the revenue scale contributed by B-side industry applications will continue to be higher than the entertainment and science and education scenarios. In the long run, although the entertainment, science and education, and household consumption circuits still have considerable potential for growth, industry application has become the core engine driving the large-scale growth of the industry. This trend has already been established. By 2030, the global four-legged robot market will exceed 10 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 60%, of which industrial inspection and safety patrol will account for about 60%.
Global four-legged robot industry application scenario revenue forecast in 2030
Source: Counterpoint Research Robotics Research
Under the native wave of AI, general-purpose embodied models will redefine the capabilities boundaries of quadruped robots
Facing the development of the industry, sensory operation control and autonomous navigation technology are important breakthroughs, allowing four-legged robots to have visual perception, walk with their eyes open, and achieve long-term unattended inspections on a monthly basis. Zhi Yuan Cool Tuo first released the perceptual operation control model “Lingyue” and the autonomous navigation model “Spiritu” at the WAIC in July 2026. In September of this year, manufacturers such as Smart Body Technology and Galileo also released their own perceptual operation control models one after another.
Counterpoint Research believes that intelligence is the core variable that opens up application space in the industry and determines the scale of the scenario. Taking electric power inspection as an example, the current four-legged robot application mainly completes sensory inspection tasks. In the long run, the expectation for the four-legged robot is that it can not only independently identify environmental abnormalities and equipment defects and report hidden hazards, but also intervene and handle abnormal events, such as relying on executive function modules including robotic arms, charging and unplugging operations, replacing faulty components, etc., thus injecting greater value into the scenario deployment of four-legged robots. Intelligence has become the core evolution direction of the four-legged robot industry, and it is also a key gripper for enterprises to build long-term technical barriers and create differentiated product competitiveness.
In this context, Zhiyuan robots have switched to a platform-based R&D system to establish a unified R&D base. The four-legged, humanoid, and dexterous hands can share the Zhiyuan Group's technical accumulation and latest research results in the fields of realistic intelligent models, data management, simulation, motion control, etc., forming a collaborative layout where the Group undertakes cutting-edge technology research and development, and Zhiyuan Cool Tuo focuses on implementing industry scenario solutions.
In the medium to long term, the evolution of four-legged robotics technology focuses on superimposing brain-side VLA and general-purpose models on top of the cerebellar control layer, while empowering quadruped robots with multi-modal perception, spatial semantic understanding, autonomous task reasoning and professional work skills, and improving the generalization ability of environmental understanding and motion planning, so that they can better cope with the challenges caused by open environments and unknown anomalies, solve outstanding problems such as the weak autonomous decision-making ability of four-legged robots, and accelerate the penetration of quadruped robots in the industry.