University of Alberta - Advanced Contract Award Notice / Notice of…

The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department submitted a competitive bid exception request on January 22, 2025 to purchase a B2-W Kit (Wheeled Quadruped Robotic Platform with Robotic Arm) from HangZhou YuShu Technology Co Ltd dba
Unitree Robotics.

1)The Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) teams have owned and previously used Unitree Go1, Go2, and Go2-W robots for research purposes. The new system must be fully compatible with the existing hardware and software ecosystem.

2)The code developed by the Department can be reused across the anticipated B2 model with the Z1 pro robot arm and the current robot platforms (Go1, Go2, and Go2- W) with only minor modifications.

3)The Department’s students have been trained on Unitree platforms and are proficient with their Software development kits (SDKs). Switching to a different system would require significant retraining, leading to inefficiencies and delays. Furthermore, the Department’s research aims to enable all robot dogs to collaborate on specific tasks. Sticking with the same vendor and maintaining consistency within the same ecosystem for the hardware and software will greatly facilitate coordination and improve research outcomes.

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