Galaxea Arms (A1/A1X/A1Y)
Galaxea AI's lightweight force-controlled robot arms - High-performance low-cost manipulators for Embodied AI research
Galaxea Arms (A1/A1X/A1Y)
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Overview
| Item | Details |
|---|
| Manufacturer | Galaxea AI (星海图, Beijing, China) |
| Product Line | A1 (High-performance), A1X/A1Y (Lightweight dual configuration) |
| DoF | 6 |
| Design Philosophy | Lightweight + Force Control + High-speed motion |
| Price Range | A1XY: $2,999 ~ $3,999 (A1/A1X-T separate inquiry) |
| Main Applications | Embodied AI research, VLA learning, Teleoperation, Education |
Key Significance
Core Hardware for Embodied AI Research
Galaxea Arms is a force-controlled robot arm designed for Embodied AI research with the following key significance:
- Force Control Capability: Planetary gear motors in each joint provide precise torque and force feedback. Enables delicate object manipulation and safe human-robot interaction
- Extreme Speed: 10 m/s end-effector linear velocity, 40 m/s^2 acceleration for high-speed motion support 1 - Maximizes research data collection efficiency
- Accessible Pricing: At $3,000~$4,000 for A1XY, approximately 1/10 the cost of Franka ($30,000+)
- Complete Ecosystem: Integrated research platform with R1 humanoid, G1 gripper, and G0 VLA model
Positioning vs Franka/xArm
| Item | Galaxea A1 | Franka Research 3 | xArm 7 |
|---|
| Price | Inquiry | ~$30,000 | ~$10,500 |
| DoF | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Payload | 3.5kg (max) | 3kg | 3.5kg |
| Reach | 700mm | 850mm | 700mm |
| Force Control | All joints | All joints | Limited |
| Max Speed | 10 m/s | 1.5 m/s | 1 m/s |
| Weight | 6kg | 18kg | 13.7kg |
| Company Status | Active | Acquired by Agile Robots after 2023 insolvency | Active |
Galaxea A1 Differentiators:
- Overwhelming Speed: 5-10x faster end-effector speed compared to competitors, enabling high-speed manipulation research
- Extremely Lightweight: At 6kg, easy to move and install
- Lowest-cost Force Control: Most affordable among all-joint force-controlled arms
Company Introduction
Galaxea AI (星海图)
| Item | Details |
|---|
| Founded | September 2023 |
| Headquarters | Beijing, China |
| Valuation | $700M (as of 2025) |
| Mission | ”Serving 10 billion humans with 10 billion robots” |
| Cumulative Funding | ~$210M (A4/A5 rounds combined $100M+) |
| Key Investors | Capital Today, Meituan (Long-Z Investments), Ant Group, IDG Capital, Baidu Ventures, GL Ventures, FunPlus, and 18 other institutions |
| Major Customers | Huawei Cloud, Volkswagen, Haier, Samsung, ByteDance, Physical Intelligence, Stanford, MIT, and 40+ others |
| Employees | 120 (2025), targeting 200 by year-end |
Galaxea AI is an Embodied AI company founded by scientists from Tsinghua University and Stanford University. The founding team consists of 4 members (Jiyang Gao, Hang Zhao, Tianwei Li, Huazhe Xu), with 3 of them being Tsinghua alumni. CEO Jiyang Gao (高继扬), born in 1992, graduated from Tsinghua University’s Department of Electronic Engineering, completed his PhD in computer vision at USC, and gained experience through internships at Google and SenseTime before working on autonomous driving at Waymo and Momenta. Co-founder and Co-Chief Science Officer Huazhe Xu completed his PhD at UC Berkeley, postdoc at Stanford, and is currently an assistant professor at Tsinghua University’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS), leading the Embodied AI Laboratory (TEA Lab). He is also a winner of the CoRL’23 Best System Paper Award.
Core Capabilities:
- Full lineup of robot arms (A-Series), grippers (G-Series), and humanoids (R-Series)
- G0 VLA Model: Self-developed Vision-Language-Action model
- Open-World Dataset: Over 500 hours of real-world manipulation data
- R1 Humanoid: Priced $44,500 ~ $64,000, targeting 1,000 unit shipments by end of 2025
- Bipedal Humanoid: Planned for 2026 release
Product Lineup
| Item | Spec |
|---|
| DoF | 6 |
| Weight | 6 kg |
| Payload | 2kg (rated) / 3.5kg (max) |
| Reach | 700 mm |
| Repeatability | 1 mm |
| Max End-Effector Speed | 10 m/s |
| Max End-Effector Acceleration | 40 m/s^2 |
| Rated Voltage | 48V |
| Rated Current | 6A (max 10A) |
| Size (Extended) | 775 x 128 x 237 mm |
| Size (Folded) | 449 x 128 x 277 mm |
| Interface | USB 2.0 |
Joint Specifications:
| Joint | Range of Motion | Rated Torque |
|---|
| Joint 1 | [-165deg, +165deg] | 20 Nm |
| Joint 2 | [0deg, 180deg] | 20 Nm |
| Joint 3 | [-190deg, 0deg] | 9 Nm |
| Joint 4 | [-165deg, +165deg] | 3 Nm |
| Joint 5 | [-95deg, +95deg] | 3 Nm |
| Joint 6 | [-105deg, +105deg] | 3 Nm |
A1X (Human-Wrist Configuration)
| Item | Spec |
|---|
| DoF | 6 |
| Weight | 4.2 kg |
| Payload | 3kg (rated, 0.6m reach) / 5kg (max) |
| Repeatability | 0.05 mm |
| Max End-Effector Speed | 5 m/s |
| Max End-Effector Acceleration | 38 m/s^2 |
| Feature | Human wrist-like dexterity |
A1X Joint Ranges:
- Joint 1: 330deg (Yaw), 600mm radius
- Joint 2: 180deg (Pitch)
- Joint 3: 190deg (Pitch)
- Joint 4: 180deg (Pitch)
- Joint 5/6: 330deg (Roll)
A1Y (Low-Inertia Configuration)
| Item | Spec |
|---|
| DoF | 6 |
| Weight | 4.2 kg |
| Payload | 3kg (rated) / 5kg (max) |
| Repeatability | 0.05 mm |
| Feature | Lightweight, low-inertia performance |
A1Y Joint Ranges (Joints 4-6 differ from A1X):
- Joint 4: 330deg (Roll)
- Joint 5: 210deg (Pitch)
- Joint 6: 330deg (Roll)
A1X vs A1Y Comparison
| Item | A1X | A1Y |
|---|
| Design Purpose | Wrist dexterity | Low-inertia performance |
| Joint 4 | Pitch 180deg | Roll 330deg |
| Joint 5 | Roll 330deg | Pitch 210deg |
| Suitable For | Complex rotational motions | Fast linear motions |
A1XY (Dual Configuration Package)
A1X and A1Y configurations provided as a single interchangeable package. Maximizes flexibility by allowing wrist configuration changes based on research needs.
Price: $2,999 (sale) / $3,999 (regular)
Force Control
The core differentiator of Galaxea Arms is all-joint force control capability.
Technical Implementation
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Actuators | 6 planetary gear motors |
| Torque Sensing | All joints |
| Feedback | Real-time torque/force feedback |
| Impedance Control | Supported |
| Compliance | Adjustable |
Use Case Scenarios
- Delicate Manipulation: Handling fragile objects like eggs, fruits
- Safe Collaboration: Collision detection/response when working in shared space with humans
- Adaptive Gripping: Grasping that adapts to various shapes/materials
- Force-based Learning: Demonstration collection including force data for Imitation Learning
End Effectors
Galaxea G1 Gripper
| Item | Spec |
|---|
| Type | Parallel 2-finger gripper |
| Length | 145 mm |
| Opening Range | 0 - 100 mm |
| Grip Force | 100 N |
| Control | Includes joint motor |
Dexterous Hand (Optional)
| Item | Spec |
|---|
| DoF | 6 |
| Number of Joints | 12 |
| Weight | 540 g |
| Repeatability | 0.20 mm |
| Thumb Grip Force | 15 N (max) |
| Palm Finger Force | 100 N (max) |
Teleoperation
A1X-T Isomorphic Teleop Device
An intuitive remote manipulation device utilizing an isomorphic replica of the A1X arm.
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Mapping | 1:1 joint synchronization |
| Feedback | Bidirectional force feedback |
| Precision | Millimeter level |
| Application | High-quality demonstration data collection |
Additional teleop options when using dual A1 arms on R1 humanoid:
- Meta Quest 3 VR: Immersive first-person view manipulation
- Standard Remote Controller: Analog stick-based control
Software and SDK
Official Resources
Supported Frameworks
| Framework | Support |
|---|
| ROS 1 | O |
| ROS 2 | O |
| Python SDK | O |
| C++ SDK | O |
VLA Research Applications
G0 Dual-System VLA Model
Galaxea has open-sourced its self-developed G0 VLA model.
| Component | Role |
|---|
| G0-VLM (System 2) | Multimodal planning (Vision-Language Model) |
| G0-VLA (System 1) | Precise motion execution (Vision-Language-Action) |
Features:
- Two systems operate asynchronously at different frequencies
- 3-stage learning: Cross-embodiment pretraining → Single-embodiment pretraining → Task-specific fine-tuning
Galaxea Open-World Dataset
| Item | Spec |
|---|
| Total Duration | Over 500 hours |
| Number of Tasks | Over 150 |
| Number of Scenes | Over 50 |
| Collection Platform | Galaxea R1 Lite (dual A1 arms) |
| Feature | Consistent data from single embodiment |
Dataset Characteristics:
- Collected in real home/office environments
- Includes long-horizon tasks
- Optimized for few-shot generalization research
Research Use Cases
- Imitation Learning: High-quality demonstration collection via teleoperation
- VLA Fine-tuning: Task-specific fine-tuning based on G0 model
- Sim-to-Real: Policy transfer from simulation to real robot
- Mobile Manipulation: Mobile manipulation research on R1 platform
Purchase Guide
Recommendations by Purpose
| Purpose | Recommended Model | Reason |
|---|
| Embodied AI Research | A1 | Force control, high-speed, high payload |
| Education/Entry | A1XY | Low cost, dual configuration |
| Data Collection | A1X-T + A1X | Isomorphic teleop |
| Humanoid Research | R1 + A1 | Full platform integration |
| Product | Regular Price | Sale Price |
|---|
| A1XY | $3,999 | $2,999 |
| A1 | Inquiry | - |
| A1X-T (Teleop) | Inquiry | - |
Where to Buy
References
Official Resources
Research Papers
News and Articles
Product Pages
See Also