Why Open-Source Humanoids Matter
Until 2023, meaningful humanoid robot research required either a multi-million-dollar custom platform or access to Atlas or ASIMO through a major research partnership. The combination of commodity servo technology, open-source walking controllers, and decreasing manufacturing costs has fundamentally changed this. In 2025, a lab can get started with a humanoid platform for $16,000-70,000 — within the budget of a university robotics lab or a serious startup.
This democratization is not just about access — it is about community velocity. Open-source platforms accumulate software contributions from dozens of research groups simultaneously, which accelerates the software ecosystem faster than any single company can.
Unitree G1: The Most Accessible Entry Point
The Unitree G1 ($16,000) is the current reference platform for accessible humanoid research. At roughly 1.3m height and 35kg, it is a full humanoid with 23 DOF, two 7-DOF arms, and walking capability that has been demonstrated at 2m/s on flat ground and over moderate terrain. The Python SDK is well-documented, ROS2 support is available through community packages, and the growing HuggingFace LeRobot community has published walking policies, manipulation pipelines, and teleoperation setups specifically for the G1.
Important caveat: the G1 at $16K is the base configuration with 6-DOF parallel jaw hands. For dexterous manipulation research, you will need to add dexterous hands ($2,000-8,000 additional) and a teleoperation glove system. Budget $20,000-28,000 for a full manipulation research setup.
Berkeley Humanoid
The Berkeley Humanoid (Zhuang et al., 2024) is a completely open-source design from UC Berkeley's Hybrid Robotics Lab. The full hardware design files, CAD models, bill of materials, and walking controller code are published. The design is optimized for RL locomotion research — lighter and faster than G1, with a focus on whole-body control research rather than manipulation.
This is a build-it-yourself platform. The BOM cost is roughly $8,000-12,000 in parts, with significant assembly time. For labs with mechanical engineering resources, it provides a customizable platform at lower cost than any commercial option. For labs without hardware expertise, the assembly and maintenance overhead is significant.
Reachy 2 by Pollen Robotics
Reachy 2 ($70,000) occupies the upper end of the open-source humanoid space. It is a commercial product with fully open-source software (Apache 2.0 license) and partially open hardware. Its 17 DOF arms, human-like kinematics, and native ROS2 stack make it particularly well-suited for research on human-robot interaction and bimanual manipulation.
The higher price buys you better mechanical quality, a supported software stack, and a company that will answer support tickets. For labs doing research that will be published in IEEE/ICRA proceedings and needs reliable, reproducible hardware, Reachy 2 is worth the premium over DIY alternatives.
Software Ecosystem Comparison
| Platform | Simulation Support | RL Training | Teleoperation | Community Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unitree G1 | Isaac Lab, MuJoCo | Isaac Lab RL policies available | Python SDK + custom glove | Large (5K+ Discord) |
| Berkeley Humanoid | MuJoCo (official) | Whole-body control research | Custom builds only | Academic (200-500 active) |
| Reachy 2 | Gazebo + custom sim | Limited RL support | Native teleoperation SDK | Commercial users (1K+) |
Getting Started: A Practical Path
The fastest path from zero to a trained manipulation policy on a humanoid:
- Month 1: Buy Unitree G1, set up Isaac Lab simulation, run walking policy in sim to validate environment
- Month 2: Deploy pre-trained walking policy to hardware, test stability in lab space, add teleoperation setup for arms
- Month 3: Collect 200-300 manipulation demonstrations via teleoperation, train ACT policy, evaluate on simple pick task
- Month 4+: Iterate on data quality and task complexity, contribute to LeRobot community
SVRC supports this path through the G1 hardware packages available in our store and the SVRC G1 support program for labs getting started.