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. — See a 360° view of Darwin. Photos: NYC Product Photography

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

Audio

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.

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: robotis.com
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