Abstract: It took just one year to improve from 21.50 seconds to 9.32 seconds. Robotics is advancing at remarkable speed, and upstream materials and process technologies must keep pace.
8.86 Seconds and 3.40 Metres on the Field: Half Algorithm, Half Materials
At the recently concluded World Humanoid Robot Games, robots completed the 100-metre sprint in 8.86 seconds and cleared 3.40 metres in the high jump—setting new records in both events and surpassing human limits in both.
Event footage | Source: compiled from publicly available news reports and screenshots, including CCTV News
Spectators see speed and height; engineers see a different set of numbers. Every hundredth of a second gained may reflect structural optimisation that removes hundreds of grams from the machine. Every take-off and landing tests the toughness and fatigue resistance of joint materials. Every endurance event depends on battery energy density and cycle life.
Algorithms compete on the field; materials compete behind the scenes.
Look one level deeper into materials and the discussion enters territory familiar to chemical engineers: monomer purity for PEEK gears, ppm-level impurities in electrolyte additives, the light transmittance of transparent face covers, and polymer formulations for flexible skin. In many critical bottlenecks, the constraint is not the material itself, but the process used to make it.
Using the Games as a connecting thread, we will conceptually disassemble a humanoid robot and examine it component by component. How many chemical materials does one of today’s most sought-after machines consume, and where do Shanghai DODGEN‘s process technology solutions fit within this materials landscape?
Frame and Joints: The Lightweighting Challenge Has Reached the Polymer Level
The first battle in humanoid robotics is weight reduction.
Every kilogram removed from the torso lowers the requirements for motor power, battery capacity, and joint torque. Lightweighting therefore multiplies gains across every performance metric. The industry’s mainstream direction is now clear: replace metals with high-performance engineering plastics.
The most prominent example is polyether ether ketone (PEEK). This special engineering plastic approaches metals in strength while having only about one-sixth their density. It is heat-resistant, self-lubricating, and fatigue-resistant, and is rapidly replacing aluminium alloys and stainless steel in humanoid robot reducer gears, bearing cages, and structural components. Industry estimates commonly suggest that a high-end humanoid robot may contain several kilograms of PEEK. As shipments rise, multiple organisations have identified PEEK as one of the robot-material categories with the greatest growth potential.
A quieter but equally important line of development is aramid fibre. Para-aramid is several times stronger than steel at the same weight. Alongside ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, it is a mainstream choice for tendon-driven dexterous hands, cable reinforcement, and flexible protective structures. For a robot’s “fingers” to move faster and more steadily, tendon strength is a non-negotiable constraint.
For both of these high-profile materials, however, the bottleneck in domestic production lies not in polymerisation but further upstream—in the monomers.
PEEK polymerisation places exceptionally stringent demands on monomer purity. Trace impurities can reduce molecular weight and impair crystallisation, ultimately shortening gear service life. Aramid fibre strength likewise depends heavily on monomer quality: a small difference in fibre strength can translate into a major difference in tendon reliability. Competition in high-performance materials is first decided by upstream purification technology.
This is one of DODGEN’s core areas of expertise. DODGEN provides process technology solutions for PEEK monomer purification and aramid fibre monomer purification. We do not manufacture resins or fibres; we enable downstream polymerisation customers to obtain higher-purity monomers, supporting the continued advancement of domestically produced PEEK and aramid materials.
Range and Power: An Entire Electrolyte Value Chain Lies Behind a Robot’s Endurance
The most relatable events at the Games were the endurance race and marathon. Limited operating time remains one of the greatest weaknesses of today’s humanoid robots: most products can run for only a few hours on a full charge, and some competitors even relied on battery-swap relays to finish their events.
Half the answer to range anxiety lies in the battery.
And roughly half of a lithium-ion battery’s performance ceiling lies in its electrolyte. Although the electrolyte may appear to be merely the “liquid” inside a cell, it is in fact a precisely engineered formulation: solvents provide the pathway for ion transport, additives determine interfacial quality, and lithium salts set the upper limit for ionic conduction. Every component can influence whether a robot runs for another ten minutes.
When the key electrolyte components are laid out, DODGEN’s process technology solutions form an almost complete chain:
● Solvents: Ethylene Carbonate (EC) purification and Dimethyl Carbonate (DMC) purification. These are foundational electrolyte solvents, and their purity directly affects battery self-discharge and cycle life.
● Film-forming additives: Carbonato de vinileno (VC) production and purification, plus one-step and two-step process routes for Fluoroethylene Carbonate (FEC). These key components help form a stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the anode surface and are the “invisible contributors” to long cycle life.
● Advanced lithium salt: Bis(fluorosulfonil)imida de litio (LiFSI) process technology. LiFSI is widely regarded as a key electrolyte salt for next-generation batteries with high energy density.
● Forward-looking route: Sodium ferrocyanide process technology based on iron-complex formation. Sodium ferrocyanide is a key precursor for Prussian blue-type cathode materials in sodium-ion batteries, helping establish the feedstock base for lower-cost energy-storage pathways.
Each individual link is already being pursued somewhere in the industry. Far less common is the capability to cover the entire chain—solvents, additives, lithium salts, and sodium-ion battery precursors—within one process technology service portfolio. On the robot track, battery packs are passed in a relay; in the battery industry, the baton moves step by step through this chemical value chain. DODGEN aims to be a reliable link in that relay.
Appearance and “Skin”: The More Humanlike the Robot, the Greater the Role of Chemistry
After examining the skeleton and the heart, we turn to the robot’s exterior. This is precisely where chemical materials are most concentrated.
First, the “eyes.” Humanoid robots make extensive use of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA, acrylic) in facial display covers, eye light guides, and transparent sensor windows. With light transmittance above 92%, low weight, and excellent formability, PMMA is a preferred material for appearance-critical parts. DODGEN’s Metacrilato de metilo (MMA) process follows an ethanol-based route using bioethanol, giving it an inherently green foundation: the raw material for a robot’s “eyes” can come from fields rather than oil wells.
Next, the “skin.” Electronic skin is one of the most active areas of robot research, enabling surfaces to sense pressure, temperature, and deformation. Industry research indicates that flexible polyurethane films are among the most promising substrate materials for electronic skin. Bio-based polyurethane, produced from Isosorbide (ISO) and other bio-based monomers, offers a more sustainable material pathway for this field.
This brings us to one of DODGEN’s most representative process achievements: polymer-grade Isosorbide (ISO) production technology. A naturally rigid, glucose-derived diol, Isosorbide is recognised as one of the most promising bio-based platform monomers. Its derivative materials—including PEIT copolyesters and bio-based polycarbonates—combine high transparency, heat resistance, and scratch resistance, making them candidate materials for transparent robot face covers, lightweight housings, and flexible protective components. DODGEN’s complete polymer-grade Isosorbide process technology supplied to Shengtong Juyuan has passed industry appraisal and been implemented in an industrial plant. With no solvent, low energy consumption, and polymer-grade purity, this process forms a bridge from laboratory research to large-scale production of bio-based materials.
Finally, the prototyping workshop. Robot designs evolve extremely quickly, so prototype housings, joint guards, and fixtures rely heavily on rapid 3D printing. Polylactic Acid (PLA) is the most widely used feedstock for fused deposition modelling (FDM), while Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a typical flexible-printing material. DODGEN’s process technology solutions for PLA, PCL, and lactones support the shortest path from digital design to physical part.
From the “eyes” and “skin” to the prototyping workshop, the more humanlike robots become, the greener their materials become. Every successful scale-up of a green material begins with a reliable process technology package.
Event footage | Source: compiled from publicly available news reports and screenshots, including Beijing Evening News
Conclusión: We Are Not on the Field; We Are in the Technological Foundation Beneath It
Taken together, a single humanoid robot connects more than a dozen DODGEN process technology solutions:
● PEEK and aramid materials in the joints depend on monomer purification.
● Battery electrolyte links to a complete process chain extending from solvents to lithium salts.
● PMMA for facial components, bio-based polyurethane for electronic skin, and PLA and PCL in prototyping connect to a portfolio of complete technologies for bio-based and biodegradable materials.
DODGEN does not manufacture robots—or even directly manufacture the materials themselves.
What we provide is the layer that enables these materials to be localised, made greener, and produced at industrial scale: process technology packages, purification technologies, and engineering scale-up. It is the least visible yet indispensable link in the value chain—like the foundation beneath the arena: spectators never see it, but every record stands upon it.
We do not know where the records will be broken at the next Games. But we do know that the path to them will pass through a chemical process line.
