University of California, Berkeley, has unveiled a new open-source, budget-friendly and customisable humanoid robot called Berkeley Humanoid Lite.

The robot has been designed to make robotics research easier for scientists and amateur roboticists alike. 

Image of the robot. Image: University of California, Berkeley.

The robot is reportedly readily customisable and can be 3D-printed. It is primarily aimed at researchers, teachers, and hobbyists. The best part is that unlike expensive, closed-source commercial robots (often priced at more than $100,000), the Berkeley Humanoid Lite costs less than $5,000 to put together by using standard parts and desktop 3D printers. 

“Despite significant interest and advancements in humanoid robotics, most existing commercially available hardware remains high-cost, closed-source, and non-transparent within the robotics community,” the team stated in a press release. 

“This lack of accessibility and customisation hinders the growth of the field and the broader development of humanoid technologies. To address these challenges and promote democratisation in humanoid robotics, we demonstrate Berkeley Humanoid Lite, an open-source humanoid robot designed to be accessible, customisable, and beneficial for the entire community,” the statement added.

Cycloidal gearboxes for robot’s motors

According to Techeblog, the robot’s motors and body use 3D-printed cycloidal gearboxes, which are very cheap but also very robust. These kinds of gearboxes (also called cycloidal drives or cycloid reducers) are a type of gear mechanism known for their high torque density, compact size, and shock-load resistance. 

Cycloidal gearboxes are widely used in robotics, industrial machinery, and precision motion control applications. The robot uses around 22 of these gear actuators to function.

“To address the inherent limitations of 3D-printed gearboxes, such as reduced strength and durability compared to metal alternatives, we adopted a cycloidal gear design, which provides an optimal form factor in this context,” the team explained. 

All other parts that can’t be printed can be easily bought off-the-shelf from online stores. The robot’s 3D-printable parts can be reproduced with at least a 200 x 200 x 200mm build space.

The finished robot is stands at around 0.8m tall and weighs about 16kg. The robot’s frame also integrates a few aluminium parts for added strength.

Fully 3D printable

Despite being almost entirely 3D-printed, the robot can walk, hop and has remote control capabilities. It also features reinforcement learning for moving skills from both simulations and real life and performs well in research settings.

“To demonstrate the capabilities of Berkeley Humanoid Lite, we conducted a series of experiments, including the development of a locomotion controller using reinforcement learning,” the team noted. “These experiments successfully showcased zero-shot policy transfer from simulation to hardware, highlighting the platform’s suitability for research validation.”

Freely available designs, CAD files, programming code, and training resources can be accessed through the official GitHub page. The page also contains other handy guides and manuals which detail policies, explain motion capture and basic control code. An accompanying study can also be read at UC Berkeley‘s official page. 

“By making the hardware design, embedded code, and training and deployment frameworks fully open-source and globally accessible, we aim for Berkeley Humanoid Lite to serve as a pivotal step toward democratising the development of humanoid robotics,” the statement stressed.