Rollin' Justin

A shiny blue and silver humanoid with two long arms with silver hands and a four wheeled mobile base holds a newspaper. — Rollin' Justin can manipulate soft objects such as paper. Photo: DLR

Rollin' Justin is a dexterous humanoid robot used to research robotics applications in home and industrial settings and in space. It can catch balls, make coffee, and is learning to fix satellites.

Creator

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Year

2008

Country

Germany 🇩🇪

Categories

Features

A shiny blue and silver humanoid with two long arms with silver hands and a four wheeled mobile base spins, raising one of its hands up as it turns. — See a 360° view of Rollin' Justin. Photos: Erik Dreyer

More interactives

Did you know?

If you tell Justin to "dance like in Pulp Fiction," the robot will immediately start performing like John Travolta in the famous movie scene.

A shiny blue and silver humanoid with two long arms with silver hands and a four wheeled mobile base holds a tray of fruit. — The arms are lightweight yet strong to lift heavy objects. Photo: DLR

Justin dances to a Pulp Fiction song. Video: Bram Vanderborght

History

Led by Prof. Alin Albu-Schäffer, the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, part of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), has been developing lightweight robot arms and hands since 1995. In 2006, researchers combined two arms, hands, and a torso to build the first Justin upper body, mounted on a table. In 2008, a wheeled base was added, and Rollin' Justin made its debut. In 2012, the current system was equipped with an improved control system for the mobile base and an updated computing platform. In a 2017 teleoperation experiment, an astronaut on board the International Space Station remotely operated Rollin' Justin in a simulated Mars environment constructed at a DLR facility in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.

The robot is bent over to place a tray of fruit on the ground. — Rollin' Justin bends its torso to reach objects on the ground. Photo: DLR

Specs

Overview: Capable of manipulating hard and soft objects. Equipped with compliant arms and collision detection. Has autonomous and teleoperation modes.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2008
Website: dlr.de/rm/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-11427/#gallery/35411
Width: 82 cm
Height: 195 cm
Length: 82 cm
Weight: 199 kg
Speed: 6 km/h
Sensors: Stereo cameras, gyroscope, accelerometers.
Actuators: 51 servomotors
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 58 (Head: 3 DoF; Arm: 7 DoF x 2; Hand: 13 DoF x 2; Torso: 3 DoF; Base 3 DoF x 4)
Compute: Four Mini-ITX boards with Intel Core i7 quad-core processors.
Software: QNX real-time OS and Linux OS with custom control software.
Power: 52-V battery, 1.5 hour of operation