Fourier unveils GR-3, a 55-joint 'Care-bot' humanoid that takes the rehabilitation specialist into companionship and eldercare

Fourier, the Shanghai robotics company that spent its first decade building rehabilitation equipment for hospitals, on 6 August 2025 unveiled GR-3, a full-size humanoid it describes as its first "Care-bot". In a release issued from Beijing, the company said the robot is meant for social companionship in public settings, for service work, for children and for older adults, and that assistive care, mobility support, health monitoring and physical rehabilitation are on its roadmap.

GR-3 is the third generation of Fourier's GRx humanoid series. According to the company's product page, it stands 165 cm tall, weighs 71 kg and has 55 degrees of freedom: two in the head, three at the waist, seven in each arm, six in each leg and six in each basic hand. Fourier's release and developer documentation list an optional 12-DoF dexterous hand. The documentation gives a single-hand payload of about 3 kg and a maximum joint peak torque of 440 Nm.

Most of the engineering effort described by Fourier sits in sensing rather than strength. GR-3 carries 31 tactile sensors, 16 in the head and 15 in the torso, so it can register being touched and respond. A four-microphone array in the head locates a speaker's direction and turns the robot toward them, with echo cancellation, while a camera module combining RGB and structured-light depth sensing recognises faces and drives what Fourier calls dynamic gaze tracking. The company groups these into a "Full-Perception Multimodal Interaction System" that uses an attention-management layer to decide which input to prioritise.

On the software side, Fourier said GR-3 uses a dual-path response design: rule-based reflexes for immediate reactions and a large language model for contextual conversation. The release lists several gaits, including standard walking, bending, squatting, running, an energy-saving "fatigue mode" and a "bouncy walk". The developer documentation specifies an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor running Ubuntu 22.04, lithium-ion batteries of 702 Wh plus 234 Wh, about three hours of endurance and about 1.5 hours of charging. Fourier's release adds that the battery is hot-swappable to support continuous operation.

The robot's look is part of the pitch. Fourier dressed GR-3 in Alcantara over GFOAM padding on an aluminium alloy and engineering plastics frame, in warm neutral tones, under the slogan "Love, above all functionality". The company's Chinese product page now lists a second version, GR-3C, which adds lidar and a hardened white shell for more precise work in complex environments. Fourier gave no price, no delivery date and no named customers in its launch material. Its product page lists a walking speed of 5.5 km/h, while the developer documentation gives 6.1 km/h.

The company's history explains the choice of market. Fourier's own timeline records its founding in 2015, a first upper-limb rehabilitation robot in 2016, and in 2017 the X1 lower-limb exoskeleton, which it calls China's first commercial product of its kind. It set up a Singapore unit in 2018, started its humanoid project in 2019 and built a first prototype in 2022. Fourier says it serves more than 2,000 institutions and hospitals in more than 40 countries and regions.

The humanoid line then moved quickly. GR-1, which Fourier says entered mass production in 2023, used the company's self-developed FSA actuators and, according to its documentation, weighed about 52 kg with 44 degrees of freedom and roughly an hour of runtime. GR-2 followed in 2024 at 175 cm and 63 kg with up to 53 degrees of freedom and about two hours of endurance. GR-3 is shorter than GR-2 and heavier than both predecessors, but carries about 936 Wh of battery and the longest stated runtime of the three.

GR-3 enters a crowded domestic field. UBTech, founded in 2012, Unitree, founded in 2016, and the younger AgiBot and Galbot, both founded in 2023, have all brought humanoids to market, alongside LimX Dynamics. Much of that sector's public positioning has centred on factories, logistics, research and education. Fourier's move is to compete on acceptance in shared human spaces, a niche where its hospital relationships give it a distribution channel few humanoid start-ups have.

The technical logic is straightforward. A robot that works next to frail or young people will be touched, bumped and spoken to from every direction, so touch sensing, sound localisation and a soft outer layer reduce both the physical and the social friction of contact. The split between reflexes and a language model is meant to keep the robot responsive when the slower model is still producing an answer.

Large questions remain. Fourier presented the care and rehabilitation functions as future applications, so GR-3 at launch is a companion and service robot, not a medical device, and the company published no clinical data or regulatory filings. Three hours of runtime limits shift length even with swappable packs, and a 71 kg walking machine near older adults raises safety certification questions that the launch material does not address. Without a price, buyers cannot yet compare it with service robots that cost far less.

Investors and hospital buyers will look for a published price, first named deployments in care homes or hospitals, and evidence that GR-3 can deliver the assistive functions Fourier has promised. Any move to certify the robot under medical or service robot safety standards would mark the shift from showcase to product.