Berkeley Releases Low-Cost Open-Source Humanoid Robot Lite

Despite significant interest and progress in the field of humanoid robotics, most commercial hardware remains expensive, proprietary, and lacks transparency within the robotics community. This lack of accessibility and customizability hinders the development and widespread advancement of humanoid technology. To address these issues and democratize the field, we present the Berkeley Humanoid Lite, an open-source, accessible, and customizable 3D-printed humanoid robot designed to benefit the entire community. The core of the Berkeley Humanoid Lite's design is a modular 3D-printed gearbox, which powers both the actuators and the robot's body. All components can be purchased from common e-commerce platforms and manufactured using standard desktop 3D printers, keeping the total hardware cost below $5000 (based on U.S. market prices). The design emphasizes modularity and ease of manufacture, making it more approachable for researchers and enthusiasts alike. One of the primary challenges with 3D-printed gearboxes is their lower strength and durability compared to metal alternatives. To mitigate this, we adopted an involute gear design, which offers the best balance for this application. Extensive testing was conducted on the 3D-printed actuators to verify their robustness and alleviate concerns about the reliability of plastic parts. To demonstrate the capabilities of the Berkeley Humanoid Lite, we performed a series of experiments, including the development of a gait controller using reinforcement learning. These experiments successfully showcased zero-shot policy transfer from simulation to hardware, highlighting the platform's suitability for research and validation. By fully open-sourcing the hardware designs, embedded code, and training and deployment frameworks, we aim to make the Berkeley Humanoid Lite a significant step toward democratizing the development of humanoid robots. All resources are available at https://lite.berkeley-humanoid.org, allowing anyone interested to contribute to and benefit from this innovative project.