[Edaily Reporter Shin Yeong-bin ] As the competition in humanoid robotics heats up, particularly between the U.S. and China, ROBOTIS(108490)is seeking to differentiate itself by emphasizing “open source.” The company plans to foster an ecosystem by making its designs and software publicly available so that universities and research institutions can directly dissect and modify the robots.

Pyo Yoon-seok, Vice President (CTO) of ROBOTIS, recently told E-Daily, “The key isn’t to show how amazing our humanoid is,” adding, “You can think of this as a platform we created to demonstrate to customers that our actuators themselves represent advanced technology.”

An actuator is a device that converts electrical signals into motion. It integrates a motor, a gearbox, and a controller into a single unit. In Saramin terms, it corresponds to joints and muscles.

Vice President Pyo is a robotics engineer who has been involved in the field since the early days of ROBOTIS’ Dynamixel project. He started as an intern in 2005, studied at KIST and in Japan, returned to the company in 2016, and currently oversees the development of humanoids and actuators as CTO. His experience attending the DARPA Robotics Challenge with CEO Kim Byung-soo in 2015 served as the catalyst for him to dive headfirst into humanoid development.

Localizing

Production

Starting with “Joints”… QDD with Reduced Heat and Noise

The “AI Sapiens K1” humanoid robot currently under development by ROBOTIS is a compact humanoid standing approximately 103 cm tall and weighing less than 35 kg. It features a total of 23 basic joints, including one at the waist, 10 in the arms, and 12 in the legs. Thanks to its modular design, the robot’s range of motion can be expanded in the future by attaching hands or additional joints. The company aims to officially launch the robot in the second half of the year.

At the core of AI Sapiens lies the Quasi-Direct Drive (QDD) actuator, developed in-house by ROBOTIS. The Q60 series is used in the upper body, while the Q80 series is used in the lower body. QDD is characterized by a lower reduction ratio compared to existing high-reduction actuators that use high reduction ratios. Through this, ROBOTIS has achieved “inverse kinematics,” where the joints move in unison when a person applies force to them from the outside.

High inverse kinematics make it easier to detect external forces and regulate torque. This is advantageous for enhancing torque control and collision safety—essential for humanoids operating in the same space as humans. Another key advantage is that this approach reduces weight and cost compared to systems using high-reduction gearboxes.

Heat dissipation and noise levels are also key points emphasized by ROBOTIS. The AI Sapiens operates solely through heat dissipation via its frame, without the need for separate cooling fans or coolant.

Vice President Bal said, “When you look at other humanoids, they are often noisy due to the sound of spinning fans,” adding, “We handle the entire system solely through frame heat dissipation, to the point where active cooling is unnecessary.” Lower heat generation also helps reduce power consumption, thereby extending the robot’s operating time.

“Blueprints”

Rather Than Finished Products… A Humanoid Anyone Can Modify and Reuse

ROBOTIS’s strategic move lies in not operating this hardware in a closed ecosystem. The company plans to release the AI Sapiens’ source code, hardware design files, bill of materials (BOM), and firmware so that universities and research institutions can utilize them for their own research.

This structure allows researchers to do more than simply purchase a robot and use only its predefined functions; they can swap out joints, attach new hands, or apply their own proprietary algorithms for locomotion, manipulation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to evolve it into a completely different robot. ROBOTIS is also envisioning an ecosystem where development results are shared through future hackathons, robotics competitions, and researcher seminars.

Vice President Pyo cited “accessibility” and “openness” as the core principles of the humanoid robots ROBOTIS aims to develop.

“We want to build robots with a price point and performance that any citizen can use,” he said. “If about 100 of these robots were deployed at universities or research facilities and actually put to use, just imagine how many follow-up research projects would spring up one after another.”

The open-source strategy follows the same logic. The plan is to create a structure where researchers and developers—even those using the platform independently of ROBOTIS—can share their results with others.

The K-Humanoid Boom… Will the ‘Open’ Strategy Succeed?

The competition to develop humanoids is also heating up in South Korea. LGELECTRONICS is developing “Cloid,” a humanoid capable of picking up and moving objects in the home. SamsungElectronics is also continuing to develop a next-generation humanoid platform based on the technology accumulated through “Hubo,” developed by its subsidiary Rainbow Robotics.

As the domestic humanoid competition heats up with a focus on real-world deployment, ROBOTIS has placed its emphasis on an “open-source ecosystem.” The company plans to distribute “AI Sapiens” as a platform that universities and research institutions can freely modify and utilize, aiming to foster the growth of not only domestically produced actuators but also technologies related to locomotion, manipulation, and learning.

Challenges remain. Factors such as how much the actual mass-production cost can be reduced, as well as the humanoid’s payload capacity, continuous operating time, and performance in repetitive tasks required in industrial settings, are expected to determine its future commercial viability. Another area that needs improvement is that while QDD is advantageous for fast and light movements, it has limitations when handling heavy objects.

Vice President Pyo stated, “Robots must be something that the actual researchers can use and develop together,” adding, “I believe that creating an ecosystem where researchers gather through competitions, hackathons, and seminars—and then share their results—is the strategy ROBOTIS can pursue.”