If you’re rocking a fairly decent 3D printer (and a substantial bank account) it’s relatively simple to create your own humanoid robot at home. Boffins at the University of Berkeley have just released the open-source plans for a robot called the Berkeley Humanoid Lite.
The major drawcard is that you’re able to make the most expensive parts of the ‘bot on your 3D printer. The downside is that the remainder of the components are only cheap(ish) if you’re an American. The ancillary parts will set you back $5,000, or a mighty R92,000.
A Humanoid of my very own
Nobody ever said that having your very own programmable Atlas would be affordable. Just that you can have it if you want to. The Berkeley project hopes to “serve as a pivotal step toward democratizing the development of humanoid robotics.”
To that end, it’s all available online. The plans, sure, but the components are also designed to be easily purchasable or created by the average person (who owns a 3D printer). The Berkeley Humanoid Lite isn’t the largest piece of robotics you’ll ever encounter, standing about as tall as a toddler, but it’s relatively simple to build… if you’re into robotics.
The brains of the system, an Intel N95 mini-PC, and a 4,000mAh battery offer up to 30 minutes of operation time, but it’s the really expensive bit that’s easy to get. The gearing system replaces metal components with 22 cycloidal gearboxes that can be built and assembled on a 200 x 200 x 200 3D printer.
If you’ve got the time, money, and inclination, here’s where you can snag the plans to set your own humanoid robot up to “perform locomotion and teleoperated manipulation”.
