> Working notes for *Open-Source Humanoid Robotics Landscape (Oct 2026)*, compiled Oct 2, 2026. Not fact-checked line by line: where these notes and the report disagree, trust the report. See README.md.

# Slice report: open humanoid platforms, closed-hardware humanoids with open software, and open actuators (status as of 2026-10-02)

## 0. Method notes and limitations

- **Tools used.** WebSearch, which returns titles and URLs only. WebFetch. The GitHits code/package index, an MCP tool, which I used to read repository files and to get PyPI-linked GitHub stats.
- **WebSearch ran out.** The session-wide limit (200 calls, shared across agents) was used up partway through. After that, discovery relied on fetching known URLs and on GitHits.
- **WebFetch was throttled.**
  - The proxy returned HTTP 429 (rate limited) repeatedly early on.
  - Later the shared limit (800 fetches per hour across all agents) ran out twice.
  - **Pages I could not read:**
    - humanoidsdaily.com, "K-Scale Labs cancels K-Bot orders…" (429)
    - toddlerbot.github.io (429)
    - techcrunch.com Microduck article, 2026-08-27 (429)
    - seeedstudio.com Reachy Mini blog, 2026-01-06 (429)
    - humanoidsdata.com/articles/open-source-humanoid-robots (429)
    - **github.com/HybridRobotics/Berkeley-Humanoid-Lite (429), so the BHL star count is missing**
    - arxiv.org/abs/2504.17249 (429)
    - arxiv.org/html/2502.00893v2 (429)
    - cnbc.com Microduck article (site returned 403)
    - theresarobotforthat.com Tien Kung article (robots.txt timeout)
    - github.com/unitreerobotics/unifolm-wla (404)
    - hello-robot.com/stretch-3-product (404)
    - github.com/icub-tech-iit/ergocub-software (fetch limit reached)
    - fftai.com/open-source/18 (JavaScript-only page, no content)
- **Retries.** The proxy said not to retry 429'd pages. I broke that once: I re-requested github.com/unitreerobotics/unitree_rl_gym about 30 minutes after its 429. It loaded, and its star count matches the Unitree org page. I also retried Arduino-FOC once, a minute after a "limit reached" error (not a 429).
- **GitHits used after failed fetches.** For BHL, unitree_rl_gym and ergocub-software I read the repo files through the GitHits index after the GitHub page failed. I treated that as an "other source"; you may judge otherwise.
- **How to read the labels:**
  - "GH" means a star count read from the GitHub page today.
  - "GitHits" means a star count from the GitHits package index, refreshed today.
  - "(self-reported)" means a vendor or project claim.
  - "(secondary)" means a third-party article or aggregator.
  - "(recalled)" means my own background knowledge, not re-verified today.
  - "(unverified)" means I could not confirm it.

---

## 1. Key takeaways

1. **Unitree's closed robots running Unitree's open software are the de facto research humanoid.**
   - Unitree says it shipped more than 5,500 humanoids in 2025 (self-reported, January 2026). Most 2025 sales went to education and research customers (secondary, TechTimes).
   - The G1 now starts at **US$13.5k** and the R1 Air at **$4.9k**.
   - Unitree listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on 2026-08-21 and closed day one at about a $50.9B valuation.
2. **Building an open humanoid as a company is still a bad business.**
   - K-Scale Labs shut down in November 2025 (its K-Bot cost $8,999), refunded pre-orders and released its IP.
   - Hugging Face's $3k HopeJR was due "by end of 2025". I found no evidence it shipped; R&D files were still being uploaded on 2026-04-30.
3. **Most activity in 2025–26 is in mid-size, 3D-printed or kit humanoids from labs and Chinese startups:**
   - Berkeley Humanoid Lite: under $5k.
   - ToddlerBot 2.0: under $6k.
   - Roboto Origin: bill of materials (BOM) about ¥49.7k, roughly $7k.
   - Asimov v1: about $15k kit target.
   - LeRobot Humanoid legs: about $2.6k.
4. **Hugging Face's robotics output with real volume is small and expressive, not full humanoids.**
   - Reachy Mini: more than 10k units shipped (secondary, August 2026).
   - Microduck ($399): headlines report more than 10k units sold within days.
   - Microduck's software is Apache-2.0, but its hardware design files are **not** open.
5. **Licences are a minefield.** Non-commercial or unclear terms apply to:
   - ToddlerBot's design files (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
   - Reachy Mini's hardware files (CC BY-NC-SA).
   - K-Bot: the README and LICENSE file contradict each other.
   - OpenLoong: Solderpad licence, but a "research-only" disclaimer.
   - AgiBot X1: no licence file in the training repo.
6. **Simulation models for open humanoids are spotty.** MuJoCo Menagerie and robot_descriptions cover Unitree, Booster T1, Fourier N1, ToddlerBot, OP3, iCub/ergoCub and Upkie. They do **not** cover Berkeley Humanoid Lite, K-Bot/Z-Bot, Asimov, Roboto, OpenLoong, Tiangong, AgiBot X1, Reachy 2/Mini, HopeJR or the Duck robots.
7. **Getting simulation-trained policies to work on cheap hardware is the recurring pain.** Every low-cost project ends up building its own system-identification or domain-randomization pipeline:
   - ToddlerBot built a motor test bed.
   - LeRobot Humanoid has a whole repo for fitting simulator parameters with CMA-ES (an optimization method).
   - Microduck randomizes backlash and voltage sag.
   - Asimov's locomotion policy is still "pending".
8. **Toolchains are fragmented.**
   - Isaac Gym (legacy) still underpins unitree_rl_gym, booster_gym and agibot_x1_train.
   - Isaac Lab versions are pinned inconsistently across projects.
   - MuJoCo-Warp / mjlab is rising.
   - Webots, Unity and Gazebo/YARP each appear in one ecosystem.
9. **Open actuators remain niche.** Most open humanoids use closed Chinese quasi-direct-drive (QDD) motors (Damiao, Robstride, Encos) or hobby/Dynamixel servos.
   - ODrive's current-generation firmware is closed (available under NDA).
   - moteus (Apache-2.0) is the main fully open high-performance controller.

---

## 2. Closed hardware with substantial open software

### Unitree G1 / H1 / H2 / R1: the de facto research humanoid
- **Status:** ACTIVE.
  - xr_teleoperate v1.6 released 2026-07-29.
  - unitree_sdk2, unitree_ros and unitree_mujoco updated August 2026 (org page).
  - UnifoLM-VLA-0 weights released 2026-01-29.
  - UnifoLM-X2-1.0 demo on 2026-09-07; not open.
- **Who:** Unitree Robotics, Hangzhou; founder and CEO Wang Xingxing (recalled).
  - IPO on 2026-08-21, Shanghai STAR Market, ticker 688836. Raised ¥6.1B. Closed day one at ¥845, up 460%, about ¥342B (\~$50.9B).
  - 2025 revenue ¥1.70B (+335%); net profit ¥278M; overseas 43.65% of revenue, US about 13% (secondary, TechTimes).
- **Links:** github.com/unitreerobotics (6.8k followers, 54 repos); unitree.com/g1.
- **GitHub stats (fetched today, GH):**

| Repo | Stars | Forks | Licence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unitree_rl_gym | 3.5k | 579–584 | BSD-3 | 42 commits, no releases |
| xr_teleoperate | 1.7k | 330–340 | Apache-2.0 | Releases v1.0 (2025-07-08) through v1.6 (2026-07-29) |
| unitree_ros | 1.6k | 448 | — | — |
| unitree_sdk2 | 1.3k | 382 | BSD-3 | Latest release v2.0.2, dated "July 7" (year not shown, likely 2025) |
| unitree_rl_lab | 1.3k | 317 | Apache-2.0 | — |
| unitree_mujoco | 1.2k | 402 | BSD-3 | — |
| unifolm-world-model-action | 1.1k | 140 | — | — |
| unitree_IL_lerobot | 771 | 137 | — | — |
| unifolm-vla | 546 | 57 | — | — |

- **License:** Hardware and firmware closed. Software is BSD-3 or Apache-2.0, as above.
- **What it is:**
  - **G1** (unitree.com, today):
    - Body: 1.32 m tall, about 35 kg, 23 degrees of freedom (DoF). The EDU version has 23–43 DoF.
    - Knee torque: 90 N·m (EDU 120 N·m).
    - Power: 9 Ah, 13-cell battery, "about 2 h" runtime.
    - Compute: 8-core CPU; EDU can add an NVIDIA Orin.
    - Sensors: depth camera plus 3D LiDAR.
    - Optional Dex3-1 hand (7 DoF).
    - Price: from $13.5k; EDU on request. It launched in May 2024 at $16k (The Robot Report headline).
  - **R1:** 1.23 m, 27–29 kg, 20 DoF (Air) or 26 DoF (R1/EDU), about 1 h runtime. $4,900 (Air) or $5,900 (R1).
  - **H2:** 1.82 m, about 70 kg, 31 DoF; legs 360 N·m, arms 120 N·m; 0.972 kWh battery, about 3 h. $29,900.
- **Software stack:**
  - SDK2 (DDS-based) and ROS 1/2.
  - MuJoCo simulator covering Go2, B2, H1, G1, H2 and AS2.
  - RL in Isaac Gym (unitree_rl_gym: train, then play, then MuJoCo sim2sim, then real robot; G1/H1/H1_2/Go2; C++ G1 deploy).
  - RL in Isaac Lab (unitree_rl_lab: Isaac Lab 2.3.0 / Isaac Sim 5.1.0; Go2/H1/G1-29dof).
  - XR teleoperation (Apple Vision Pro, PICO 4 Ultra Enterprise, Quest 3; G1/H1/H2/R1; Dex1/Dex3/Inspire/BrainCo hands).
  - LeRobot fork for G1 imitation learning (ACT, Diffusion, Pi0, Pi0.5, GR00T policies).
  - World-model / VLA releases:
    - UnifoLM-WMA-0: weights 2025-09-15, deployment code 2025-09-22. Trained on Z1/G1 datasets plus Open-X.
    - UnifoLM-VLA-0: 2026-01-29. Trained on 12 open datasets, mostly G1.
- **Simulation models:** URDF (unitree_ros), MJCF (Menagerie; unitree_mujoco). USD via the Isaac Lab tasks.
- **Adoption:** More than 5,500 humanoids delivered in 2025; more than 6,500 produced (self-reported, 2026-01-29). The majority went to education and research (secondary).
- **Benchmarks:**
  - UnifoLM-VLA claims "12 categories of complex manipulation tasks… single policy" (self-reported; no LIBERO numbers in the README summary).
  - UnifoLM-X2-1.0: "no paper, no benchmark numbers, no inference latency figure" (AlphaSignal).
- **Trade-offs:**
  - **For:** the best price-to-performance, a large research community, official RL, teleoperation and imitation-learning stacks, and Menagerie models. It is the default target for a data or simulation vendor.
  - **Against:** closed actuators and firmware, so you cannot modify or repair joints at component level.
  - **Against (recalled, not re-verified):** low-level control reportedly requires EDU units; the "UniPwn" BLE vulnerability was disclosed in September 2025.
- **Sources:**
  - github.com/unitreerobotics
  - …/unitree_rl_gym, …/unitree_rl_lab, …/xr_teleoperate, …/unitree_sdk2, …/unitree_sdk2/releases, …/unitree_mujoco, …/unitree_IL_lerobot
  - …/unifolm-world-model-action, …/unifolm-vla
  - unitree.com/g1, /R1, /H2
  - prnewswire.com (Unitree 5,500 units)
  - techtimes.com/articles/325193 (IPO)
  - alphasignal.ai (UnifoLM-X2)
  - xr_teleoperate CHANGELOG (GitHits)

### Booster Robotics T1 / K1 / T2
- **Status:** ACTIVE. booster_gym now points to new repos: booster_train (Isaac Lab), booster_deploy and booster_assets, with K1 support.
- **Who:** Booster Robotics, Beijing.
- **Links:** github.com/BoosterRobotics/booster_gym.
- **GitHub stats (GH):** booster_gym 304 stars, 54 forks.
- **License:** Software Apache-2.0 (LICENSE © 2024 Booster). Hardware closed.
- **What it is** (physicalailab.io, 2026-08-07, secondary):
  - **K1:** about 95 cm, 19.5 kg, 22 DoF, 60 N·m peak; compute 48/117/200 TOPS by version; about 30 min walking at 0.4 m/s (2 Ah) or about 80 min (5 Ah); from US$5,999.
  - **T1:** 118 cm, about 30 kg, 23 / 31 / 41 DoF; 130 N·m; AGX Orin (200 TOPS); about 2 h walking.
  - **T2:** about 140 cm, 42–43 kg, 31 DoF, Thor T5000. T1 and T2 prices are quote-only.
- **Software and simulation:** Isaac Gym training, MuJoCo cross-simulation, Webots deployment check (booster_gym). URDF and MJCF of T1 are in Menagerie and robot_descriptions (Apache-2.0).
- **Adoption / benchmarks:** T1 was the RoboCup 2025 AdultSize champion platform and K1 the KidSize champion platform (secondary).
- **Trade-offs:** The strongest closed-hardware alternative to Unitree for soccer and kid-size research. The ecosystem is much smaller (304 stars versus 3.5k).
- **Sources:** github.com/BoosterRobotics/booster_gym (GH and GitHits); physicalailab.io/en/booster-k1-vs-t1-vs-t2/.

### Fourier (GR-1/GR-2/GR-3 software; N1 is covered in section 3)
- **Status:** ACTIVE (software). fourier-grx-M4 updated 2026-08-12; fourier_aurora_sdk 2026-05-08.
- **GitHub stats (GH, org page):**

| Repo | Stars | Licence | Last updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| teleoperation | 166 | — | — |
| Wiki-GRx-Deploy | 115 | LGPL-3.0 | 2026-02-26 |
| fourier-lerobot | 85 | Apache-2.0 | 2026-02-12 |
| Wiki-GRx-Mujoco | 23 | LGPL-3.0 | — |
| fourier-grx-client | 17 | — | — |

- GR-1 URDF is GPL-3.0 (robot_descriptions).
- **Trade-off:** The open software is thin relative to Unitree.
- **Sources:** github.com/FFTAI; robot_descriptions README (GitHits).

### Other closed hardware with open software (brief)
- **AgiBot** (X2, A-series): genie_sim 1.4k stars (updated 2026-09-07); Genie-Envisioner-V1 581; ACoT-VLA 247; X2/A3 URDF/USD repos. The X2 is SDK-only (AimDK_X2), not open hardware (secondary).
- **Galaxea (R1 / R1 Pro):** GalaxeaVLA 683 stars, GalaxeaDP 41, GalaxeaManipSim 37 (Apache-2.0 on some). R1 Pro URDF has 22 DoF (Apache-2.0).
- **EngineAI:** engineai_legged_gym 521 stars, engineai_humanoid 170, engineai_rl_lab 47 (PM01, T800).
- **HighTorque:** Mini-Pi-Plus_BeyondMimic 183 stars, Mini_Pi_RL_Baseline 89. CAD and BOM are open only for the Panthera-HT arm (MIT, 212 stars).
- **LimX:** Oli, Luna and TRON1/2 descriptions under Apache-2.0.
- **PNDbotics:** Adam Lite MJCF (MIT, Menagerie).
- I found no open humanoid hardware from any of these companies.
- **Sources:** github.com/AgibotTech, /OpenGalaxea, /engineai-robotics, /HighTorque-Robotics; robot_descriptions README.

### Closed comparators (price and capability reference only)
- **1X NEO** (1x.tech, today):
  - 5'6", 66 lb; hands 22 DoF each, arms 7 DoF each, legs 6 DoF each.
  - 842 Wh battery, 4 h runtime, 22 dB.
  - $200 deposit. Price not on page; widely reported in October 2025 as $20k or $499/month (recalled).
  - Uses remote "Expert Mode" teleoperation.
- **Figure 03** (October 2025), **Tesla Optimus**, **Agility Digit**, **Apptronik Apollo:** no public list prices verified today (recalled). Apollo's MJCF is in Menagerie (Apache-2.0).

---

## 3. Open-hardware humanoids

### Berkeley Humanoid Lite (BHL): sub-$5k, 3D-printed, research-grade kid-size humanoid
- **Status:** SLOWING (by verifiable evidence).
  - The documentation release log runs from 2025-04-28 to 2025-11-10.
  - The repo's `pyproject.toml` (workspace v1.1.0) pins Isaac Sim 5.1.0 and Isaac Lab 2.3.2.post1. That Isaac Lab version was published 2026-02-11, so the code was updated on or after February 2026.
  - Exact last-commit date not verified. Press coverage continued in August–September 2026.
- **Who:** UC Berkeley Hybrid Robotics.
  - Authors: Yufeng Chi, Qiayuan Liao, Junfeng Long, Xiaoyu Huang, Sophia Shao, Borivoje Nikolić, Zhongyu Li, Koushil Sreenath.
  - Published at RSS 2025.
- **Links:** github.com/HybridRobotics/Berkeley-Humanoid-Lite; lite.berkeley-humanoid.org; arXiv 2504.17249; GitBook docs.
- **GitHub stats:** NOT fetched (429). Docs releases are listed above.
- **License:** Code MIT. Other assets (CAD) CC BY-SA 4.0.
- **What it is:**
  - Body: 0.8 m, 16 kg, 22 actuated DoF (6 per leg, 5 per arm, matching the joint names in the env configs).
  - Actuators: 22 modular 3D-printed cycloidal actuators — 10× "6512" (about $188 each) and 12× "5010" (about $136 each), using drone motors.
  - Motor config: 15:1 gearing, 14 pole pairs, Kt 0.1176 N·m/A, 4096-CPR encoder (motor_configuration.json).
  - Built from PLA with embedded brass, on a 200 mm³ desktop printer.
  - Compute: Intel N95 mini PC.
  - Total hardware under $5,000.
  - Teleoperation via SteamVR.
  - Simulation models: URDF, MJCF and USD exported from Onshape.
  - Stack: Isaac Lab tasks, MuJoCo sim2sim, Pinocchio/Pink inverse kinematics.
- **Adoption:** No numbers verified. Press coverage August–September 2026.
- **Benchmarks** (Interesting Engineering, 2026-08-31, from the paper):
  - Gearbox efficiency about 90%.
  - Torque-tracking error within 0.5 N·m.
  - 60-hour endurance test: stable efficiency, gradual increase in backlash.
  - Six actuators from two different printers performed consistently.
  - Zero-shot sim-to-real RL walking.
  - Manipulation demos: writing, Rubik's cube, box packing.
- **Trade-offs:**
  - **For:** the cheapest research-credible open-hardware humanoid with fully open actuators, permissive code licence and all three simulation formats.
  - **Against:** plastic gearboxes wear (backlash grows); low payload; small team. The documentation history shows repeated BOM, joint-limit and print-file fixes.
  - **Choose it over ToddlerBot** if you need a larger body or brushless actuators. **Choose ToddlerBot** for robustness and cheaper repairs.
- **Sources:**
  - Repo files via GitHits: README.md, LICENCE, pyproject.toml, motor_configuration.json, env_cfg.py
  - lite.berkeley-humanoid.org
  - berkeley-humanoid-lite.gitbook.io/docs/releases
  - interestingengineering.com/ai-robotics/new-3d-printed-berkeley-humanoid-lite
  - pypi isaaclab (GitHits)

### ToddlerBot / ToddlerBot 2.0 (Stanford): 0.56 m, 30-DoF ML-first humanoid
- **Status:** ACTIVE to SLOWING.
  - ToddlerBot 2.0 released 2025-08-25.
  - "Locomotion Beyond Feet" released 2026-01-08 (arXiv 2601.03607).
  - Commit dates after January 2026 not verified.
- **Who:** Haochen Shi (lead, Stanford). Authors on the 2026 paper include Tae Hoon Yang, Shuran Song and C. Karen Liu. Published at CoRL 2025 (PMLR v305).
- **Links:** github.com/hshi74/toddlerbot; toddlerbot.github.io; arXiv 2502.00893 and 2601.03607; Onshape; MakerWorld.
- **GitHub stats (GH):** 719 stars, 89 forks, 48 commits, no release tags.
- **License:** Code and docs MIT. **Design files CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (non-commercial).**
- **What it is:**
  - Body: 0.56 m, 3.4 kg, under $6,000 total (arXiv abstract); 30 active DoF.
  - Motors: Dynamixel (XC330, XC430, 2XL430, XM430).
  - ROBOTIS sells a "ToddlerBot Bundle Kit" (motors and U2D2 only) for **$4,335.51**.
  - Two hardware variants: 2xc (v1 motors) and 2xm (upgraded hip and arm motors).
  - Compute: Jetson Orin NX. Docs also cover ROG Ally X and Steam Deck setups.
- **2.0 features:**
  - Cartwheel and crawl via DeepMimic.
  - Faster walking.
  - Meta Quest VR teleoperation.
  - FoundationStereo depth at 10 Hz (TensorRT on Orin NX).
  - C++ Dynamixel loop raised from 50 to 200 Hz.
  - Rewritten Onshape-to-MJCF/URDF pipeline.
  - MJX training with rsl_rl.
  - Terrain generator.
  - Keyframe animation app.
- **Simulation models:** URDF; MJCF of 2XC/2XM in MuJoCo Menagerie (MIT).
- **Adoption:** Successful independent replication (paper). Community build programs exist (Genboo "Humanoid Cohort 03 × ToddlerBot", page title only).
- **Benchmarks:**
  - Zero-shot sim-to-real.
  - Changelog admits: "with naive DeepMimic and domain randomization, the success rate is still low" for cartwheels, but the robot "almost never breaks".
- **Trade-offs:**
  - **For:** the best documented ML-first small humanoid; cheap, robust and fast to iterate; MJX/MuJoCo native.
  - **Against:** the non-commercial design licence; servo-grade dynamics. The maintainers say they will ignore issues that do not follow the docs.
- **Sources:**
  - github.com/hshi74/toddlerbot (GH; README, CHANGELOG, LICENSE and docs via GitHits)
  - arxiv.org/abs/2502.00893
  - robotis.us/products/toddlerbot-bundle-kit

### Asimov v0 / v1 (Menlo Research, Singapore): open full-stack 1.2 m humanoid
- **Status:** ACTIVE.
  - Asimov 0 (legs) open-sourced 2026-01-27.
  - Asimov 1 open-sourced 2026-04-27.
  - asimov-1 repo updated 2026-07-03.
- **Who:** Menlo Research Pte. Ltd. (Singapore).
- **Links:** github.com/asimovinc/asimov-1, /asimov-v0, /asimov-mjlab; asimov.inc; menlo.ai blog.
- **GitHub stats (GH):**
  - asimov-1: about 1.0k stars (repo page shows "1k", 163 forks, 23 commits; the org listing showed 972 / 152).
  - asimov-v0: 764 stars.
  - asimov-mjlab: 58 stars (Apache-2.0).
- **License:** Hardware CERN-OHL-S-2.0; software GPL-2.0.
- **What it is:**
  - 1.2 m, 35 kg, 25 actuated DoF plus 2 passive toes (6-DoF legs, 5-DoF arms, 1 waist, 2 neck); peak 120 N·m.
  - Compute: Raspberry Pi 5 plus Radxa CM5.
  - Monocular camera; parallel RSU ankle; Encos actuators; Multi Jet Fusion printed structure.
  - Included: mechanical CAD (7 subassemblies), electrical schematics and PCBs, MuJoCo model, onboard software.
  - **Still pending (README): Asimov API, locomotion policy, mobile app.**
- **Price:**
  - DIY kit: $499 deposit, about $15k target, shipping "summer 2026" (self-reported). Whether it shipped is unverified.
  - An August 2026 headline calls it "the $20,000 IKEA humanoid" (unverified).
  - The legs subsystem cost just over $10k, of which actuators and joint parts were about $8.5k (Menlo blog, 2026-01-28).
- **Benchmarks:** Knee handles about a 40 kg quasi-static push (self-reported).
- **Trade-offs:**
  - **For:** the most permissive-reciprocal full-size open humanoid with real QDD actuators.
  - **Against:** no released locomotion policy yet; expensive versus a G1 at $13.5k; copyleft licences (GPL/CERN-S) deter some commercial users.
- **Sources:** github.com/orgs/asimovinc/repositories; github.com/asimovinc/asimov-1; menlo.ai/blog/humanoid-legs-100-days; opensourceforu.com (2026-05).

### Roboto Origin (RoboParty): "full-stack" open DIY humanoid from China
- **Status:** ACTIVE. Developed April–August 2025; open-sourced January 2026; BOM dated 2026-01-05.
- **Who:**
  - RoboParty. The GitHub README says Shanghai, founded 2025-02-21; Interesting Engineering says Beijing (conflict).
  - Founder Yi Huang (21).
  - $10M seed from MPCi, Xiaomi and Galbot. A Dealroom headline reports a later $69M raise (unverified detail).
- **Links:** github.com/Roboparty/roboto_origin (an aggregation of 8 modules); oshwhub.com (LCSC open-hardware platform).
- **GitHub stats (GH):** 2.2k stars, 290 forks, 670+ commits.
- **License:** Mixed (LICENSES.md):
  - Repo root, deploy and XR-teleop modules: GPL-3.0-only. Firmware and navigation modules: GPL-3.0 by default.
  - Training module: BSD-3-Clause.
  - Description (URDF/MJCF) and appearance modules: CERN-OHL-W-2.0.
  - Hardware module: licensed separately.
- **What it is:**
  - 1.25 m, 34 kg, about 3 m/s (self-reported).
  - BOM "ATOM 01 v1.0.1": total ¥49,713 (about $7k), comprising:
    - 14× Damiao DM-4340P at ¥949 and 9× DM-10010L at ¥1,989, so 23 actuators.
    - CNC aluminium frame: ¥15.7k.
    - Compute: D-Robotics RDK X5 8GB.
    - Battery: 48 V 15 Ah.
    - USB-to-CAN interfaces.
  - Software: Isaac Lab 2.1.1 RL with an AMP-style gait and sim2sim; ROS 2 Humble; XR teleop (derived from Unitree code).
- **Adoption:** About 100 kit pre-orders (Interesting Engineering, February 2026).
- **Trade-offs:**
  - **For:** the most complete open supply chain (Taobao-linked BOM) at roughly half a G1's price.
  - **Against:** Chinese-language-first community (QQ group); GPL-heavy; actuators are closed Damiao units.
- **Sources:** github.com/Roboparty/roboto_origin (GH; LICENSES.md and BOM_EN.md via GitHits); interestingengineering.com/ai-robotics/worlds-first-full-stack-humanoid-robot-open-sourced.

### OpenLoong / Qinglong (Shanghai Humanoid Robot Innovation Center; OpenAtom community)
- **Status:** ACTIVE, but the GitHub org is a **mirror**: "Active development moved to atomgit.com/openloong". GitHub updates include loong_driver_sdk (2026-07-11) and LoongMarathonNav (2026-04-21).
- **Who:** The Shanghai humanoid innovation center, with OpenAtom Foundation hosting. Qinglong was unveiled at WAIC in July 2024.
- **GitHub stats (GH, org page):**

| Repo | Stars | Licence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenLoong-Dyn-Control | 339 | — | — |
| Unity-RL-Playground | 317 | Apache-2.0 | — |
| OpenLoong-Hardware | 116 | Solderpad | — |
| MiniLoong | 17 | — | Updated 2025-12-17 |

  The org has 374 followers.
- **License:** Hardware is Solderpad Hardware License v2.1 (an Apache-2.0 wrapper). **However, the README says the files are "for technical learning and research purposes only".**
- **What it is** (README, self-reported):
  - 43 DoF, 80 kg, at least 5 km/h, at least 20 kg payload, at least 3 h battery, up to 400 TOPS, EtherCAT.
  - Dimensions are listed ambiguously as 2192×1850×300 mm; height is widely reported as about 1.85 m.
  - Open files are mostly **2D PDF part drawings** (waist, chest, head, leg) for "QingLoong V2.5", not full parametric CAD.
- **Trade-offs:**
  - **For:** a full-size open reference design.
  - **Against:** heavy; drawings rather than CAD; a contradictory use restriction; Western developers face friction on AtomGit.
- **Sources:** github.com/loongOpen; OpenLoong-Hardware README and licence (GitHits).

### Tiangong / Tien Kung (Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, "X-Humanoid")
- **Status:** ACTIVE.
  - TienKung-Lab updated 2026-09-14.
  - Tiangong 3.0 launched 2026-02-10.
  - $100M commercial financing reported 2026-02-03.
- **Links:** github.com/Open-X-Humanoid (441 followers, 24 repos).
- **GitHub stats (GH):**

| Repo | Stars | Licence | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| TienKung-Lab | 885 | BSD-3 (README badge) | — |
| XR-1 (VLA) | 184 | — | — |
| x-humanoid-training-toolchain | 78 | Apache-2.0 | 2026-08-25 |
| TienKung_URDF | 49 | — | — |
| Deploy_Tienkung | 48 | — | — |
| xMimic | 28 | MIT | — |

- **What exactly is open:**
  - Verified: RL locomotion (TienKung-Lab, Isaac Sim 4.5 / Isaac Lab 2.1; AMP plus periodic-gait rewards; motion retargeting via GMR added 2025-09-27; sim2real demo 2025-11-07), deployment code, URDF, ROS low-level control, the RoboMIND dataset and toolchain, the Pelican-VL model, and the XR-1 VLA.
  - "Physical design blueprints" are claimed (HumanoidsDaily), but I found no hardware CAD in the GitHub org.
  - **So it is open software plus URDF, with hardware openness unverified.**
- **Specs:** Tiangong 3.0 is 169 cm, 62 kg, 43 DoF. It won the first humanoid half-marathon in April 2025 (README); a 21.5 s 100 m was reported for Tiangong Ultra.
- **Sources:** github.com/Open-X-Humanoid; TienKung-Lab README (GitHits); humanoidsdaily.com (Tiangong 3.0); english.www.gov.cn (2024-11-13, few specifics).

### AgiBot Lingxi X1: open full-stack humanoid from 2024; hardware frozen
- **Status:** DORMANT (hardware). The last hardware folder is "智元灵犀X1_20250307" (2025-03-07). The AgiBot org itself is active (genie_sim updated 2026-09-07).
- **Links:** github.com/AgibotTech/agibot_x1_hardware, /agibot_x1_infer, /agibot_x1_train.
- **GitHub stats (GH):**
  - agibot_x1_infer: 1.8k stars, 538 forks.
  - agibot_x1_train: 1.7k stars, 508 forks; a single commit.
  - agibot_x1_hardware: 1.1k stars, 334 forks, 25 commits.
- **License:** Not shown on the GitHub pages; **no LICENSE file in agibot_x1_train** (GitHits listing). Treat as unclear.
- **What it is** (aiwiki, secondary):
  - 130 cm, 33 kg, 34 DoF (29 body, 2 gripper, 3 head), 1 m/s, about 2 h.
  - PowerFlow QDD actuators: R86-3 (200 N·m), R86-2 (80 N·m), R52 (19 N·m).
  - EtherCAT plus FDCAN at 1 kHz; AimRT middleware.
  - Training: Isaac Gym Preview 4 plus MuJoCo sim2sim.
  - Price about $19.5k (secondary, unverified).
  - The successor X2 is **not** open hardware.
- **Sources:** github.com/AgibotTech; agibot_x1_hardware and agibot_x1_train pages; aiwiki.ai/wiki/agibot_x1/raw.

### Fourier N1: partially open 1.3 m humanoid
- **Status:** SLOWING. The docs repo fourier-grx-N1 was last updated 2026-03-17.
- **Who:** Fourier (Shanghai); R&D Director Cai Yusheng. Launched April 2025.
- **GitHub stats (GH):** FFTAI/fourier-grx-N1, 21 stars, MIT. It is a documentation site only, "not SDK source"; examples live in the FourierN1 branch of Wiki-GRx-Deploy.
- **License:** Docs MIT. N1 URDF Apache-2.0 (Wiki-GRx-Models). N1 MJCF Apache-2.0 (Menagerie).
- **What is open:** BOM, structural blueprints, assembly guide, core control and base software (Yicai, 2025-04-14). The hardware files' licence and location are unverified (Fourier's site renders via JavaScript only).
- **Specs:** 1.3 m, 38 kg, 3.5 m/s running, more than 2 h battery (self-reported). Price "flexible" or not public.
- **Sources:** github.com/FFTAI; fourier-grx-N1 README (GitHits); yicaiglobal.com (N1); robot_descriptions README.

### K-Scale Labs K-Bot / Z-Bot (Zeroth-01): DISCONTINUED
- **Status:** DISCONTINUED (company).
  - Shutdown announced 4–5 November 2025.
  - Pre-orders cancelled and refunded; all IP released.
  - Some repos still received commits afterwards: kscalelabs/zeroth-bot 2026-04-01, firmware 2026-04-23, kteleop 2026-02-11.
- **Who:**
  - Benjamin Bolte (CEO; ex-Meta AI, ex-Tesla Autopilot).
  - Co-founder Jingxiang Mo departed.
  - Y Combinator W24; $500k seed documented; a $20M Series A was sought and failed.
  - Bolte: "I kind of had bet the farm on the Kbot launch… I was overindexing on how easy I thought it would be to get funding."
- **GitHub stats (GH):**
  - kbot: 377 stars (updated 2025-11-07).
  - ksim: 225 stars (MIT; last push 2025-10-29; v0.2.10 2025-08-18).
  - ksim-gym: 314 stars.
  - zeroth-robotics/zeroth-bot: 832 stars, 131 forks, MIT.
  - kinfer: 20 stars.
  - The org has 1.1k followers and 133 repos.
- **License:** **The kbot README says hardware is CERN-OHL-S and software is GPL v3, but the LICENSE file is MIT (© 2025).** LICENSE-HW is CERN-OHL-S v2. Z-Bot is MIT.
- **What it was:**
  - K-Bot: about 1.4 m, 120 N·m actuators, $8,999. Batch sizes conflict: the first batch was limited to 100 with at least 2 shipped (mikekalil), versus "sold out second batch" in September 2025 (HumanoidsDaily).
  - Z-Bot: about 46 cm, kit under $1k, BOM from $350, Feetech servos, MJCF/URDF with system-identified actuators.
- **Takeaway:** The cautionary tale for open-hardware humanoid economics, and a reusable codebase (ksim, MJX/JAX-based).
- **Sources:**
  - mikekalil.com/blog/k-scale-labs-shuts-down/ and /blog/kscale-labs/
  - humanoidsdaily.com ("Watch: K-Scale Labs CEO Explains Shutdown")
  - github.com/kscalelabs; github.com/zeroth-robotics/zeroth-bot
  - kbot README and licences (GitHits); pypi ksim/kscale/kinfer (GitHits)

### HopeJR (Hugging Face × TheRobotStudio)
- **Status:** ACTIVE R&D, but **not shipped as far as I could find.**
  - Announced 2025-05-29 at about $3,000, with first units "by end of 2025" and a waitlist (TechCrunch).
  - Latest repo upload 2026-04-30: a test STL for a Robstride RS02 series-elastic spring mount.
  - My search budget ran out before I could confirm delivery status.
- **Who:** Rob Knight (TheRobotStudio; original humanoid), Martino Russi (Hugging Face; arm, exoskeleton and LeRobot integration).
- **GitHub stats (GH):** TheRobotStudio/HOPEJr, 810 stars, 99 forks, 89 commits, no releases.
- **License:** Apache-2.0 (Humanoid/LICENSE, © 2024 The Robot Studio).
- **What it is:**
  - Claimed 66 actuated DoF, walking and manipulation (TechCrunch).
  - The open arm uses Feetech servos: 16 SCS0009 in the hand, plus STS3250, STS3215 and SM8512BL. Tendon-driven fingers with an underactuated DIP joint.
  - Teleoperation exoskeleton with hall-effect encoders on every joint ("Homunculus"); no soldering needed.
  - Integrated with LeRobot. Full-body URDF included.
- **Trade-offs:** The only open, low-cost, full-size humanoid design paired with a matching teleop exoskeleton, which is relevant to data collection. Its viability as a product is unproven.
- **Sources:** github.com/TheRobotStudio/HOPEJr (GH; files via GitHits); techcrunch.com (2025-05-29); huggingface.co/posts/clem/522668354429256.

### LeRobot Humanoid (Hugging Face, May 2026): about $2.6k open biped
- **Status:** ACTIVE (released late May 2026).
- **Who:** Virgile Batto ("initially developed… during his time at Hugging Face LeRobot"), with Haixuan Xavier Tao (dora-rs).
- **Links:**
  - github.com/Virgileboat/lerobot-humanoid (workspace).
  - Hardware, model, runtime, identification and design live under huggingface/lerobot-humanoid-*.
  - Public Onshape CAD.
- **License:** Apache-2.0 (hardware repo, © 2026 Hugging Face).
- **What it is:**
  - Currently the biped platform only; the upper body is out of scope for now.
  - 12 DoF; 12 Robstride motors (about $1,880 in total).
  - 3D-printed PLA+ (75 parts); Raspberry Pi 5; BNO055/085 IMU.
  - BOM $2,636 (Sina, 2026-05-31). The README targets under $5k.
  - Model repo: MJCF/URDF. **Identification repo: MuJoCo-Warp replay plus CMA-ES fitting of simulator parameters.**
- **Sources:** finance.sina.com.cn (2026-05-31); lerobot-humanoid and lerobot-humanoid-hardware README and LICENSE (GitHits).

### Open Duck Mini, and Microduck (Pollen Robotics / Hugging Face)
- **Status:** ACTIVE. Microduck pre-orders opened 2026-08-27, with delivery targeted before Christmas 2026. Commit dates for the Open Duck Mini repo were not verified.
- **Who:** Open Duck Mini is led by Antoine Pirrone (recalled) and sponsored by Hugging Face and Pollen. Microduck is a Pollen/Hugging Face product.
- **GitHub stats (GH):** apirrone/Open_Duck_Mini, 4.2k stars, 537 forks, Apache-2.0.
- **What it is:**
  - **Open Duck Mini v2:** about 42 cm, BOM under $400, Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, actuator identification with Rhoban BAM; a mini version of Disney's BDX.
  - **Microduck:** $399; 25 cm, under 800 g, 15 motors; Rockchip RK3566 with 1 GB RAM; camera, dual IMUs, 8×8 LiDAR; about 1 h battery (NP-F550).
  - **Microduck software:** Apache-2.0 (microduck_rl and runtime). PPO in mjlab / MuJoCo-Warp; "usable gait in 1–2 h on a CUDA GPU at 4096 environments" (self-reported). Domain randomization over voltage sag, command delay, friction and ±1° backlash.
  - **Microduck's mechanical and electronic design files are NOT open-source.**
- **Adoption:** More than 10,000 Microducks sold "in days" (CNBC, Quartz and RobotToday headlines, 2026-09-01; I could not read the article bodies).
- **Sources:** github.com/apirrone/Open_Duck_Mini; marktechpost.com (2026-08-28).

### iCub / ergoCub (IIT)
- **Status:** SLOWING by verified evidence, though probably active.
  - icub-models 3.2.0 released 2026-02-26.
  - ergocub-software plans a "2026.02 distro" and has moved under the mesh-iit org.
- **GitHub stats:** robotology/icub-main 121 stars, 106 forks, GPL-2.0 plus BSD (GH). icub-models 47 stars (GitHits).
- **License:** iCub models CC-BY-SA-4.0. ergoCub URDF BSD-3.
- **What it is:** The canonical open research humanoid (recalled: about 1 m, about 22 kg, 53 DoF, roughly €250k). Stack: YARP, Gazebo, conda-forge packages. Simulation models: URDF/SDF; both robots are in robot_descriptions.
- **Trade-offs:** Excellent whole-body-control and tactile research legacy, but expensive, a niche middleware (YARP), and poor fit with the RL/VLA tooling wave.
- **Sources:** github.com/robotology/icub-main; ergocub-software README (GitHits); pypi icub-models (GitHits).

### Upkie (wheeled biped)
- **Status:** ACTIVE.
  - v13.0.0 released 2026-10-01; it moved RL code to a separate rl_zoo3_balancer repo on Codeberg.
  - v11.0.0 (2026-04-07) added support for switching between Upkie and the "Cookie" wheeled biped.
- **Who:** Stéphane Caron (Inria) (recalled).
- **GitHub stats (GitHits):** upkie/upkie 436 stars, 57 forks, Apache-2.0, last push 2026-10-02.
- **What it is:** 6-DoF wheeled biped on mjbots-class actuators (recalled). MPC and RL; Python API. Upkie and Cookie URDFs are in robot_descriptions.
- **Sources:** pypi upkie (GitHits); robot_descriptions README.

---

## 4. Upper-body, wheeled and mobile bimanual platforms

### Reachy 2 (Pollen Robotics / Hugging Face)
- **Status:** SLOWING (SDK). reachy2-sdk 1.0.15 released 2025-10-29; last push 2025-11-26. The product is still listed.
- **Who:** Pollen Robotics (Bordeaux), acquired by Hugging Face in April 2025 (TechCrunch).
- **GitHub stats (GitHits):** reachy2-sdk 71 stars, 11 forks, Apache-2.0. LeRobot compatibility added 2025-09-04.
- **What it is:**
  - Height 136–166 cm; up to 50 kg.
  - 7-DoF bio-inspired arms (about 3 kg each) on Orbita 2D/3D parallel actuators.
  - Omnidirectional 3-omniwheel base with LiDAR; stereo plus RGB-D cameras.
  - ROS 2 Humble with a Python SDK; VR teleoperation app.
  - Price is not on the page; roughly $70k was reported at the 2024 launch (unverified).
- **Sources:** pollen-robotics.com/reachy-2/; pypi reachy2-sdk (GitHits).

### Reachy Mini (Pollen / Hugging Face / Seeed)
- **Status:** ACTIVE. reachy-mini v1.11.0 released 2026-09-21; 73 versions.
- **GitHub stats:** pollen-robotics/reachy_mini 1.4k stars, 279 forks, 2,897 commits (GH). PyPI: about 12k downloads per month (GitHits).
- **License:** Software Apache-2.0. **Hardware design files CC BY-SA-NC (non-commercial).**
- **What it is:**
  - 28 cm tall, 1.5 kg.
  - Wireless version: Raspberry Pi CM4, about 2 h battery, $499. Lite version: USB-tethered to a PC, $399. Launched at about $300 in 2025.
  - Camera, 4 microphones, speaker, accelerometer.
  - MuJoCo simulation.
  - App store on Hugging Face Spaces with 60+ apps; JavaScript/WebRTC SDK; an AGENTS.md for coding agents.
  - Kit assembles in 2–3 h.
- **Adoption:** 3,000 shipped by early February 2026 (originofbots); "over 10,000 units" shipped by late August 2026 (MarkTechPost, secondary).
- **Pain point:** Security advisory GHSA-m2pc-3q4q-w6jr (medium, 2026-09-10), "Unrestricted upload of file with dangerous type".
- **Sources:** github.com/pollen-robotics/reachy_mini; pollen-robotics.com/reachy-mini/; pypi reachy-mini (GitHits); originofbots.com; marktechpost.com.

### OpenArm (Enactic): open 7-DoF humanoid arm and bimanual system
- **Status:** ACTIVE. openarm_can 1.4.0 released 2026-09-16.
- **GitHub stats:** enactic/openarm 3.6k stars, 383 forks, 456 commits (GH). openarm_can 66 stars (GitHits).
- **License:** Hardware CERN-OHL-S-2.0 (STEP, STL, Fusion 360). Software Apache-2.0: description, CAN, ROS 2, teleop (unilateral and bilateral), Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, dataset, Dora.
- **What it is:** $6,500 for a complete bimanual system; backdrivable and compliant.
  - **"OpenArm Cell": a standardized environment (background, lighting, camera placement) for reproducible evaluation. This is directly relevant to an environment or data business.**
- **Sources:** github.com/enactic/openarm (GH; README via GitHits); pypi openarm-can.

### XLeRobot (household dual-arm mobile robot)
- **Status:** SLOWING by dated news. Last news 2026-01-29: a MuJoCo plus 3D Gaussian Splatting browser demo. The two-wheel version came out 2025-12-02.
- **Who:** Gaotian "Vector" Wang (Rice University), plus MakerMods contributors.
- **GitHub stats (GH):** Vector-Wangel/XLeRobot 5.5k stars, 610 forks, 1,502 commits, Apache-2.0. Latest release v0.3.0 (2025-08-30).
- **What it is:** Built from SO-101 arms, LeKiwi and BamBot designs on an IKEA cart.
  - Parts cost about $660 (excluding 3D printing); developer kit $579 (Wowrobo) or ¥3,699.
  - Under 4 h assembly (self-reported).
  - Keyboard, Xbox, Joy-Con and Quest 3 VR teleop; MuJoCo; RL/VLA tutorials.
- **Sources:** github.com/Vector-Wangel/XLeRobot (GH; README via GitHits).

### LeKiwi and BamBot
- **LeKiwi** (SIGRobotics UIUC with Hugging Face): 1.4k stars, 155 forks, Apache-2.0.
  - SO-ARM101 arm on a 3-omniwheel base, Raspberry Pi 5, 5 V or 12 V power, URDF.
  - The LeRobot-integrated mobile base; there is also a Dynamixel variant.
- **BamBot** (Tim Qian): 953 stars, Apache-2.0. Billed as an about $300 open low-cost humanoid (demo-video title). URDF in robot_descriptions.
- **Sources:** github.com/SIGRobotics-UIUC/LeKiwi; github.com/timqian/bambot (GH; READMEs via GitHits).

### Mobile ALOHA
- **Status:** DORMANT. Still on ROS 1 Noetic and Ubuntu 18.04/20.04; ROS 2 marked "ongoing".
- **GitHub stats (GH):** MarkFzp/mobile-aloha 4.5k stars, 733 forks, 73 commits, MIT (© Tony Z. Zhao).
- **Notes:** Historic and influential. The 2024 hardware cost was roughly $32k (recalled). Superseded commercially by Trossen and other kits.
- **Source:** github.com/MarkFzp/mobile-aloha.

### TidyBot++
- **Status:** Likely DORMANT. CoRL 2024; 5 commits visible.
- **GitHub stats (GH):** jimmyyhwu/tidybot2 609 stars, 69 forks, MIT.
- **What it is:** Holonomic powered-caster base for any arm, with phone teleop and a full simulation pipeline (arXiv 2412.10447).
- **Source:** github.com/jimmyyhwu/tidybot2.

### Hello Robot Stretch
- **Status:** ACTIVE. **Stretch 4 now sells at $29,950**; Stretch 3 is legacy. stretch_body was pushed 2026-06-10.
- **GitHub stats (GitHits):** stretch_body 36 stars (LGPL-3.0). stretch_urdf 16 stars.
- **Simulation models:** Stretch 4 URDF (BSD-3-Clause-Clear); Stretch 3 MJCF in Menagerie.
- **Sources:** hello-robot.com; pypi hello-robot-stretch-body (GitHits); robot_descriptions README.

### ROBOTIS AI Worker
- **Status:** ACTIVE. The ffw package hit 2.2.8 on 2026-09-18, adding MuJoCo models for the BG2/SG2/SH5 variants.
- **License:** Apache-2.0 software; closed commercial hardware.
- **Sources:** ai_worker README, CHANGELOG and LICENSE (GitHits).

---

## 5. Actuators and motor drivers

### mjbots moteus (Josh Pieper)
- **Status:** ACTIVE. v1.0.0 (2026-05-28) was the first semantic-versioned release; v1.1.1 on 2026-08-04; last push 2026-09-04.
- **GitHub stats (GitHits):** mjbots/moteus 1.2k stars, 379 forks.
- **License:** Apache-2.0.
- **Notes:** The most capable fully open field-oriented-control (FOC) brushless controller for legged robots; CAN-FD with Python and C++ libraries. Upkie is in this ecosystem.

### ODrive
- **Status:** The open firmware is DORMANT. The README says v3.x firmware is "no longer under active development", and next-generation firmware (Pro, S1, Micro) source "is currently not publicly available. Access may be available under NDA".
- **GitHub stats (GH):** odriverobotics/ODrive 3.7k stars, 1.7k forks, MIT.
- **Other:** The Python package odrive is at 0.6.11.post1 (2026-08-31), MIT.

### SimpleFOC
- **GitHub stats (GH):** simplefoc/Arduino-FOC 3.0k stars, 754 forks, MIT; library v2.4.0 (release date not verified).
- **Notes:** Good for low-power joints and education, not for high-torque legs.

### MIT Mini Cheetah actuator / Ben Katz motorcontrol
- **Status:** bgkatz/motorcontrol (MIT, © 2020) has recent maintenance: a Makefile build and a CLAUDE.md, dates unverified. Stars not fetched.
- **Notes:** The ancestor of today's Chinese QDD actuators.

### Berkeley Humanoid Lite actuator
- 3D-printed cycloidal gearbox, 15:1, about 90% efficient.
- Two sizes: 6512 (about $188) and 5010 (about $136). Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (see section 3).

### OpenQDD (Aaed Musa)
- **GitHub stats (GH):** aaedmusa/openqdd-v1 134 stars, 26 forks; licence not shown.
- **What it is:** 3D-printed quasi-direct-drive actuator; specifications live on aaedmusa.com (not read).

### Closed comparators commonly used in open builds
- **Feetech STS3215:** $13.89; 16.5 kg·cm at 6 V (7.4 V version) or 30 kg·cm (12 V version) (SO-ARM100 README). Used in SO-101, XLeRobot, HopeJR and HumanaOpen.
- **Dynamixel:** ToddlerBot's 24-motor bundle plus U2D2 costs $4,335.51 (about $180 per motor). DynamixelSDK v4.1.0 (2026-09-14), 610 stars.
- **Damiao:** DM-4340P ¥949 and DM-10010L ¥1,989 (Roboto BOM, January 2026).
- **Robstride:** 12 motors for about $1,880 (LeRobot Humanoid). RS02 is used in HopeJR's legs.
- **Encos:** used in Asimov; leg actuators plus joint parts about $8.5k for 12 DoF.
- **Unitree joint motors:** sold inside its robots (G1 knee 90/120 N·m).
- **Not verified today:** CubeMars prices and torques, and Robstride and Damiao torque ratings.

---

## 6. Also notable (brief)

- **Alia Humanoid** (aliahumanoid/alia-humanoid-core): tendon-driven humanoid built to human proportions. STLs, electronics and firmware. Walking only in simulation (June 2026); "sim-to-real is gated by remaining hardware". ACTIVE.
- **HumanaOpen** (OneRobotAI/HumanaOpen): semi-humanoid built on LeRobot, with 7-DoF dual arms (ST3215), a differential-drive base and a leadscrew lift. Fusion 360, STEP, STL and URDF included. 2026; licence unverified.
- **pib** (pib-rocks/pib-backend): 3D-printed educational humanoid. Backend is AGPL-3.0. Variants pib4/pib5 edu, advanced and museum. Includes an MCP server, which implies 2025+ activity (dates unverified).
- **Poppy Humanoid** (Inria): DORMANT. poppy-humanoid 3.0.0 was released 2020-11-05; pypot (281 stars) last pushed 2022-05.
- **ROBOTIS OP3:** DORMANT on its main branch (changelog last 2018-03-26). OP3 MJCF is in Menagerie (Apache-2.0).
- **InMoov, NimbRo-OP2X, ODRI Solo/Bolt, Duke Humanoid, AhaRobot:** status not verified (search budget ran out). ODRI Solo URDF is in robot_descriptions (BSD-3). The Duke Humanoid controller repo uses EtherCAT/SOEM with Ubuntu 22.04.
- **GENE.01** (Generative Bionics): its URDF is CC-BY-NC-4.0.
- **Galaxea R1 Pro:** URDF with 22 DoF, Apache-2.0.
- **robot_descriptions.py:** 833 stars; v3.2.0 on 2026-09-12; 86k downloads per month.
- **mjlab:** 3.1k stars; v1.6.0 on 2026-08-09; 54k downloads per month.
- **LeRobot:** 27k stars; v0.6.1 on 2026-08-03.

---

## 7. Comparison table

"n/v" means not verified today.

| Platform | Height | Weight | DoF | Price / BOM | License (hardware / software) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unitree G1 (closed hardware) | 1.32 m | \~35 kg | 23 (EDU 23–43) | from $13.5k | closed / BSD-3, Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| Unitree R1 | 1.23 m | 27–29 kg | 20 / 26 | $4.9k / $5.9k | closed / same | ACTIVE |
| Unitree H2 | 1.82 m | \~70 kg | 31 | $29.9k | closed / same | ACTIVE |
| Booster K1 / T1 | 0.95 / 1.18 m | 19.5 / \~30 kg | 22 / 23–41 | from $5,999 / quote | closed / Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| Berkeley Humanoid Lite | 0.8 m | 16 kg | 22 | under $5k | CC BY-SA 4.0 / MIT | SLOWING |
| ToddlerBot 2.0 | 0.56 m | 3.4 kg | 30 | under $6k (motors $4.3k) | **CC BY-NC-SA 4.0** / MIT | ACTIVE–SLOWING |
| Asimov v1 | 1.2 m | 35 kg | 25 + 2 passive | \~$15k kit target | CERN-OHL-S-2.0 / GPL-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| Roboto Origin | 1.25 m | 34 kg | 23 actuators | ≈¥49.7k (\~$7k) | CERN-OHL-W / GPL-3.0, BSD-3 | ACTIVE |
| LeRobot Humanoid (legs) | n/v | n/v | 12 | \~$2.6k | Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| HopeJR | full-size | n/v | 66 (claimed) | \~$3k (not shipped) | Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE R&D |
| OpenLoong Qinglong | \~1.85 m (reported) | 80 kg | 43 | n/a | Solderpad 2.1 ("research only") / Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE (AtomGit) |
| Tiangong 3.0 | 1.69 m | 62 kg | 43 | n/a | hardware n/v / BSD-3, Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| AgiBot X1 | 1.30 m | 33 kg | 34 | \~$19.5k (secondary) | unclear | DORMANT (hardware) |
| Fourier N1 | 1.3 m | 38 kg | n/v | not public | n/v / MIT docs, Apache-2.0 URDF | SLOWING |
| K-Bot / Z-Bot | \~1.4 m / \~0.46 m | n/v | n/v | $8,999 / under $1k | CERN-OHL-S (+ conflicting MIT/GPL) / MIT | DISCONTINUED |
| Microduck | 0.25 m | <0.8 kg | 15 motors | $399 | **closed** / Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| Open Duck Mini v2 | \~0.42 m | n/v | n/v | under $400 BOM | Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE? |
| Reachy Mini | 0.28 m | 1.5 kg | n/v | $399 / $499 | **CC BY-SA-NC** / Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| Reachy 2 | 1.36–1.66 m | ≤50 kg | 7 per arm + head + base | \~$70k (unverified) | n/v / Apache-2.0 | SLOWING |
| OpenArm (bimanual) | — | — | 2×7 | $6.5k | CERN-OHL-S-2.0 / Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| XLeRobot | — | — | 2 arms + base | from \~$660 | Apache-2.0 | SLOWING |
| Upkie | n/v | n/v | 6 | n/v | Apache-2.0 | ACTIVE |
| iCub | \~1 m (recalled) | \~22 kg (recalled) | 53 (recalled) | \~€250k (recalled) | CC-BY-SA-4.0 models / GPL-2.0, BSD | SLOWING |
| Stretch 4 (closed hardware) | — | — | — | $29,950 | closed / LGPL, BSD | ACTIVE |

---

## 8. Gaps and pain points (evidence-based, aimed at a data / simulation / environment company)

1. **The economics push research toward Unitree.**
   - Evidence: G1 at $13.5k and R1 at $4.9k. More than 5,500 Unitree humanoids shipped in 2025, mostly to education and research. K-Scale died after failing to raise a $20M Series A. HopeJR missed its "end of 2025" target.
   - Implication: data and environment products should support the G1 (and Booster) first, and use open robots as secondary embodiments.
2. **Licence fragmentation blocks commercial redistribution of assets.**
   - ToddlerBot designs and Reachy Mini hardware are non-commercial.
   - The K-Bot README conflicts with its LICENSE file.
   - OpenLoong's Solderpad licence comes with a "research only" disclaimer.
   - AgiBot X1 repos lack a licence.
   - GENE.01's URDF is CC-BY-NC; iCub models are CC-BY-SA (flagged as incompatible in robot_descriptions).
   - Isaac Lab ships under "NVIDIA Proprietary Software" on PyPI.
   - Microduck's hardware is closed.
   - **A curated, licence-cleared, simulation-ready asset library is a real gap.**
3. **Simulation-ready models are missing or unvalidated for most open humanoids.**
   - Menagerie and robot_descriptions lack BHL, K-Bot/Z-Bot, Asimov, Roboto, OpenLoong, Tiangong, X1, Reachy 2/Mini, HopeJR and the Duck robots.
   - Each project rolls its own Onshape-to-robot export.
   - Documentation change logs show repeated fixes to joint limits and models (BHL 2025-11-10; ToddlerBot's "OnShape to MJCF pipeline rewrite").
4. **Sim-to-real on cheap hardware needs actuator system identification that nobody standardizes.**
   - ToddlerBot built a custom motor test bed and still reports low cartwheel success.
   - BHL's backlash grows over a 60-hour test.
   - Microduck randomizes voltage sag, command delay, friction and ±1° backlash.
   - LeRobot Humanoid created a dedicated MuJoCo-Warp plus CMA-ES identification repo.
   - Asimov's locomotion policy is still "pending"; Alia's sim-to-real is blocked on hardware.
   - **Opportunity: actuator-model libraries (Damiao, Robstride, Encos, Feetech, Dynamixel) and identification-as-a-service.**
5. **Toolchain churn and lock-in.**
   - Legacy Isaac Gym still powers unitree_rl_gym (3.5k stars), booster_gym and agibot_x1_train.
   - Isaac Lab pins diverge: TienKung-Lab uses Isaac Sim 4.5 / Isaac Lab 2.1; unitree_rl_lab uses Isaac Lab 2.3.0 / Isaac Sim 5.1; BHL uses Isaac Sim 5.1 / Isaac Lab 2.3.2.post1.
   - mjlab (3.1k stars, 54k downloads per month) is gaining with Microduck and Asimov.
   - Webots (Booster), Unity (OpenLoong) and Gazebo/YARP (IIT) persist.
   - **Opportunity: one robot-agnostic environment layer with maintained ports.**
6. **Teleoperation and data collection exist, but whole-body humanoid data is scarce and not standardized.**
   - Teleop stacks: Unitree xr_teleoperate (Vision Pro / PICO / Quest), ToddlerBot Quest, BHL SteamVR, HopeJR hall-sensor exoskeleton, TidyBot++ phone, OpenArm bilateral.
   - Data and models: UnifoLM datasets are mostly G1 tabletop manipulation; Tiangong's RoboMIND; AgiBot World (CC BY-NC-SA, secondary).
   - Motion retargeting relies on GMR / AMASS.
   - **Gaps:** glove or egocentric-to-humanoid retargeting pipelines for open embodiments, dexterous-hand data, and shared formats beyond the LeRobot dataset format.
7. **Benchmarks are mostly videos.**
   - UnifoLM-X2 is "mostly a video and a claim". Speed claims (Fourier N1 3.5 m/s, Roboto 3 m/s) are self-reported.
   - Real competitions are few: RoboCup (Booster) and the half-marathon (Tiangong).
   - OpenArm Cell is one of the few standardized physical evaluation environments.
   - **Opportunity: matched sim and real benchmark suites for low-cost humanoids.**
8. **Actuator and controller openness is shrinking.**
   - ODrive's next-generation firmware is under NDA.
   - Open designs (BHL cycloidal, OpenQDD at 134 stars) are low-torque or low-adoption.
   - Most builds depend on closed Chinese QDD supply chains.
9. **Discoverability, support and security friction.**
   - OpenLoong's GitHub is only a mirror (AtomGit); Roboto's community is QQ-centric.
   - ToddlerBot will ignore issues that do not follow the docs.
   - Mobile ALOHA is stuck on ROS 1.
   - Reachy Mini's app store already has a file-upload advisory.
   - Kit buyers face pre-order risk (K-Scale refunds).

---

## 9. Every GitHub repo referenced, with stars fetched today

"GH" means read from the GitHub page; "GitHits" means from the GitHits index.

**Unitree**
- unitreerobotics/unitree_rl_gym — 3.5k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/xr_teleoperate — 1.7k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unitree_ros — 1.6k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unitree_sdk2 — 1.3k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unitree_rl_lab — 1.3k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unitree_mujoco — 1.2k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unifolm-world-model-action — 1.1k (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unitree_IL_lerobot — 771 (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unifolm-vla — 546 (GH)
- unitreerobotics/unifolm-wla — 404, not fetched

**Booster**
- BoosterRobotics/booster_gym — 304 (GH)
- BoosterRobotics/booster_train, /booster_deploy, /booster_assets — not fetched

**Fourier**
- FFTAI/teleoperation — 166 (GH)
- FFTAI/Wiki-GRx-Deploy — 115 (GH)
- FFTAI/fourier-lerobot — 85 (GH)
- FFTAI/Wiki-GRx-Mujoco — 23 (GH)
- FFTAI/fourier-grx-N1 — 21 (GH)
- FFTAI/fourier-grx-client — 17 (GH)
- FFTAI/fourier_aurora_sdk — 10 (GH)
- FFTAI/Wiki-GRx-Models — not fetched

**AgiBot**
- AgibotTech/agibot_x1_infer — 1.8k (GH)
- AgibotTech/agibot_x1_train — 1.7k (GH)
- AgibotTech/genie_sim — 1.4k (GH)
- AgibotTech/agibot_x1_hardware — 1.1k (GH)
- AgibotTech/Genie-Envisioner-V1 — 581 (GH)
- AgibotTech/ACoT-VLA — 247 (GH)

**OpenLoong**
- loongOpen/OpenLoong-Dyn-Control — 339 (GH)
- loongOpen/Unity-RL-Playground — 317 (GH)
- loongOpen/OpenLoong-Hardware — 116 (GH)
- loongOpen/LoongMarathonNav — 31 (GH)
- loongOpen/MiniLoong — 17 (GH)
- loongOpen/loong_driver_sdk — 6 (GH)

**X-Humanoid (Tiangong)**
- Open-X-Humanoid/TienKung-Lab — 885 (GH)
- Open-X-Humanoid/XR-1 — 184 (GH)
- Open-X-Humanoid/x-humanoid-training-toolchain — 78 (GH)
- Open-X-Humanoid/TienKung_URDF — 49 (GH)
- Open-X-Humanoid/Deploy_Tienkung — 48 (GH)
- Open-X-Humanoid/xMimic — 28 (GH)

**K-Scale and Zeroth**
- zeroth-robotics/zeroth-bot — 832 (GH)
- kscalelabs/kbot — 377 (GH)
- kscalelabs/ksim-gym — 314 (GH)
- kscalelabs/ksim — 225 (GH) / 227 (GitHits)
- kscalelabs/onshape — 47 (GH)
- kscalelabs/zeroth-bot — 42 (GH)
- kscalelabs/kinfer — 20 (GitHits)
- kscalelabs/firmware — 8 (GH)
- kscalelabs/kscale — 8 (GitHits)

**Academic open humanoids**
- HybridRobotics/Berkeley-Humanoid-Lite — not fetched (429)
- hshi74/toddlerbot — 719 (GH)

**Hugging Face, Pollen and related**
- huggingface/lerobot — 27k (GitHits)
- apirrone/Open_Duck_Mini — 4.2k (GH)
- pollen-robotics/reachy_mini — 1.4k (GH)
- TheRobotStudio/HOPEJr — 810 (GH)
- pollen-robotics/reachy2-sdk — 71 (GitHits)
- huggingface/lerobot-humanoid-hardware — not fetched
- Virgileboat/lerobot-humanoid — not fetched
- TheRobotStudio/SO-ARM100 — not fetched

**Other open humanoids**
- Roboparty/roboto_origin — 2.2k (GH)
- asimovinc/asimov-1 — \~1.0k (GH)
- asimovinc/asimov-v0 — 764 (GH)
- asimovinc/asimov-mjlab — 58 (GH)
- upkie/upkie — 436 (GitHits)
- robotology/icub-main — 121 (GH)
- robotology/icub-models — 47 (GitHits)
- icub-tech-iit/ergocub-software — not fetched
- poppy-project/pypot — 281 (GitHits)
- pib-rocks/pib-backend — not fetched
- ROBOTIS-GIT/ROBOTIS-OP3 — not fetched
- aliahumanoid/alia-humanoid-core — not fetched
- OneRobotAI/HumanaOpen — not fetched
- generalroboticslab/dukeHumanoidHardwareControl — not fetched

**Upper-body, mobile and bimanual**
- Vector-Wangel/XLeRobot — 5.5k (GH)
- MarkFzp/mobile-aloha — 4.5k (GH)
- enactic/openarm — 3.6k (GH)
- SIGRobotics-UIUC/LeKiwi — 1.4k (GH)
- timqian/bambot — 953 (GH)
- jimmyyhwu/tidybot2 — 609 (GH)
- enactic/openarm_can — 66 (GitHits)
- hello-robot/stretch_body — 36 (GitHits)
- hello-robot/stretch_urdf — 16 (GitHits)
- ROBOTIS-GIT/ai_worker — not fetched

**Other companies' open software**
- OpenGalaxea/GalaxeaVLA — 683 (GH)
- engineai-robotics/engineai_legged_gym — 521 (GH)
- HighTorque-Robotics/Panthera-HT_Main — 212 (GH)
- HighTorque-Robotics/Mini-Pi-Plus_BeyondMimic — 183 (GH)
- engineai-robotics/engineai_humanoid — 170 (GH)
- engineai-robotics/engineai_rl_lab — 47 (GH)

**Actuators and drivers**
- odriverobotics/ODrive — 3.7k (GH)
- simplefoc/Arduino-FOC — 3.0k (GH)
- mjbots/moteus — 1.2k (GitHits)
- ROBOTIS-GIT/DynamixelSDK — 610 (GitHits)
- aaedmusa/openqdd-v1 — 134 (GH)
- adam-software/feetech-servo-python-sdk — 42 (GitHits)
- bgkatz/motorcontrol — not fetched

**Simulation and tooling**
- mujocolab/mjlab — 3.1k (GitHits)
- robot-descriptions/robot_descriptions.py — 833 (GitHits)