[Edaily Reporter Shin Yeong-bin ] RoboTiz ( ROBOTIS(108490)) announced on the 3rd that it will release the software for its open humanoid robot, “AI Sapiens.” The company aims to create an ecosystem where researchers and developers can freely utilize the drive code and learning tools necessary for humanoid development.

AI Sapiens is an open humanoid robot platform developed by ROBOTIS. Through this release, ROBOTIS plans to support university research labs, startups, and general developers in building and controlling humanoid robots more easily.

Until now, some open humanoid platforms have been limited to providing application programming interfaces (APIs) that execute commands authorized by the manufacturer. The scope of disclosure regarding core control code—such as that for maintaining balance and walking—and internal operating principles was often restricted.

ROBOTIS has released the source code for AI Sapiens, allowing users to directly examine the robot’s control mechanisms and modify or adapt them for research purposes. The open-source software is provided under a license with few restrictions on commercial use, which, according to the company, reduces the burden of separate contracts for developers creating commercial products.

The released materials also include a simulation-to-reality (Sim2Real) tool and a reinforcement learning workflow—both of which address key challenges in humanoid development. This structure enhances development convenience by supporting the process of applying walking capabilities, trained iteratively in the NVIDIA simulation environment, to actual robots.

ROBOTIS is also operating a pilot program to build an open ecosystem. Through the “Ojim Project” for college students, participants are using the AI Sapiens platform directly to collect various motion and control data and conducting research to apply this data to actual robots.

The company plans to expand the program’s scope beyond university students to include researchers and developers in the future. Starting with the release of the software, the company intends to sequentially release hardware-related materials—such as mechanical design drawings and electronic circuit data—to evolve the platform into an open ecosystem where users can build and modify humanoids on their own.

ROBOTIS previously released “TurtleBot3,” an official Robot Operating System (ROS) platform, as open source in 2016, helping it spread as a research platform used by universities and research institutions worldwide. The company plans to build a similar developer ecosystem in the humanoid field through the release of the AI Sapiens software.

Kim Byung-soo, CEO of ROBOTIS, stated, “A platform’s value increases when it is open, not when it is closed,” adding, “Even if domestic universities and research labs want to study humanoids, it is difficult to obtain robots, and even if they do, they cannot examine the internal workings, making proper research challenging.”

He continued, “There’s a world of difference between simply making API usage documentation available and calling that ‘openness,’ and actually releasing the core code that governs how the robot moves,” adding, “We will create a virtuous cycle where technology validated in research labs around the world feeds back into the platform, and South Korea will lead the global humanoid ecosystem.”

AI Sapiens software and related materials are available for free download on the official ROBOTIS developer site and GitHub.