Darwin-OP

A black humanoid robot with cat-like ears stands in a stretching yoga pose.
Darwin-OP can perform versatile motions. Photo: Robotis

Darwin-OP is a small humanoid robot that can walk, dance, and speak. It can also play soccer, and if it falls, it just stands up and keeps going. It's designed as an open platform for robotics research.

Creators

Robotis, RoMeLa, and GRASP Lab

Year
2010
Country
South Korea 🇰🇷
Categories
Features
A series of images rotates a small black humanoid robot with cat-like ears and glowing blue eyes.
Interactive
See a 360° view of Darwin. Photos: NYC Product Photography

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Appearance

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Did you know?

Darwin-OP stands for "Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot With Intelligence-Open Platform," an acronym crafted by acronym-loving roboticist Dennis Hong.

A black humanoid robot bent with knees forward and its torso, head, and arms all the way back.
Can you do that? Photo: Robotis
A humanoid robot doing a head stand.
Life is better upside down! Photo: Robotis
Dennis Hong demos the Darwin-OP. Video: IEEE Spectrum

More videos

Audio

UCLA roboticist Dennis Hong describes how the Darwin-OP project came about and why he made the robot completely open source.

UCLA roboticist Dennis Hong describes how the Darwin-OP project came about and why he made the robot completely open source.

Photo: RoMeLa
Dennis Hong explains the goals of the RoboCup robot soccer tournament and how he and his collaborators created a winning robot.

Dennis Hong explains the goals of the RoboCup robot soccer tournament and how he and his collaborators created a winning robot.

Photo: RoMeLa

More Images

A small humanoid robot appears to be driving on top of a Roomba vacuum.
Darwin-OP learns to drive. Photo: Evan Ackerman

Specs

Overview

Open hardware and software platform. Able to recognize and track objects. Equipped with modular, high-performance actuators.

Status

Discontinued

Year

2010

Website
Height
45.5 cm
Weight
2.9 kg
Speed
0.86 km/h
Sensors

HD camera, three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, stereo microphone. Force sensors optional.

Actuators

Dynamixel MX-28T actuators (DC servos with contactless absolute encoders).

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
20 (Leg: 6 DoF x 2; Arm: 3 DoF x 2; Neck: 2 DoF)
Compute

Intel Atom 1.6 GHz CPU (main computer), ARM Cortex M3 72 MHz CPU (subsystem), wireless network.

Software

Ubuntu Linux OS, Darwin-OP software framework (open source, written in C++).

Power

11.1-V 1000-mAh lithium-polymer battery, 30 minutes of operation. Or external power supply.

Cost
$12,000