CHARLI

A black and silver humanoid robot with white casing. — CHARLI's body is made of aluminum, carbon fiber, and plastic. Photo: Romela

CHARLI is an adult-size humanoid designed as a platform to study robot mobility and autonomy. It can walk, kick a ball, and change its posture to avoid falls if something (or someone) pushes on it.

Creators

UCLA and RoMeLa

Year

2011

Country

United States 🇺🇸

Categories

Features

First walking test of CHARLI-L2. Video: RoMeLa

Did you know?

CHARLI was modeled on the NS-5 robots from the film "I, Robot" and the industrial robots that appear in Bjork's 1999 "All Is Full of Love" video.

Full body view of the bipedal humanoid robot. — The robot uses three dozen electric motors. Photo: Romela

Rear view of the bipedal humanoid robot showing exposed electronics. — The robot was designed to be as lightweight as possible. Photo: Romela

Audio

UCLA roboticist Dennis Hong, the creator of CHARLI, describes how the humanoid learned how to walk and became a robot soccer star.

Photo: Dustin Fenstermacher/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Dennis Hong explains the main similarities and differences between CHARLI and other walking humanoids.

Photo: RoMeLa

How do you take a humanoid robot on a plane? Dennis Hong describes his experiences going through airport security with CHARLI.

Photo: RoMeLa

More Images

A humanoid robot is almost as tall as the human next to them. They stand on a soccer course surrounded by onlookers as the robot tries to score a goal. — CHARLI gets ready for a kick at RoboCup 2011. Photo: Romela

A man in black shirt and jeans stands next to a white and black humanoid robot that is as tall as his chest. — CHARLI and its father, Professor Dennis Hong. Photo: Stephen Voss/Redux

Close up of metallic gears. — Close-up on CHARLI's ankle gears. Photo: Romela

Specs

Overview: Modular, lightweight design. Capable of reacting to external disturbances using an active stabilization strategy.
Status: Inactive
Year: 2011
Website: romela.org/charli-cognitive-humanoid-autonomous-robot-with-learning-intelligence
Width: 20 cm
Height: 141 cm
Length: 48 cm
Weight: 12.1 kg
Speed: 1.4 km/h (walking)
Sensors: Camera, three-axis rate gyro, three-axis accelerometer, two microphones, encoders in each joint.
Actuators: 32 DC motors
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 25 (Leg: 6 DoF x 2, Arm: 4 DoF x 2, Head: 2 DoF, Hand: 1 DoF x 2, Torso: 1 DoF)
Materials: Aluminum alloy, titanium, carbon-fiber composites, and plastics.
Compute: Single-board computer with 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU.
Software: Ubuntu Linux OS and custom operation and control program coded in C++ (LabVIEW version also implemented).
Power: 14.8-V lithium-polymer battery for actuation and 11.1-V lithium-polymer battery for computing, 30 minutes of operation