Welcome to the CCBR Humanoid Lab
An open-source humanoid collaboration from Caltech, Columbia, Berkeley, and Rutgers.
About Our Project
We are a team of students building an open-source humanoid robot with modular hardware. Our goal is to create a shared platform that lowers the barrier to humanoid robotics research and development.
🎯 Objectives
- Develop a cheap, fully functional bipedal humanoid capable of walking
- Create a modular mechanical and electrical platform capable of supporting a library of different components (eg, swappable grippers / feet)
- Build an open-source community to advance education and research in humanoid development
🚀 Current Focus: Modular Leg Design
We plan to start by creating the leg, which we believe will be helpful for rapid development and in setting the stage to achieve full-body modularity. Our goals for the leg are that:
- The leg can work in both quadrupedal and bipedal settings
- Has easily swappable components—sensors, motors, etc.
- We also want a robust method to estimate the load capacity of any busts the leg would support
Key Design Features
Ankle modularity: We want to support modular foot geometries (flat pad, gripper toes, wheels, ...) as well as easily swappable motors and sensors (pressure pads, full 6-axis F/T, ...)
Knee modularity: We also want to support modular knees which will facilitate easier transformations between bipeds and quadrupeds, only requiring a knee replacement rather than an entirely new leg.
Current designs: We are currently exploring a belt-like actuation design where the motors are all centered around the hip joint.
📅 Timeline
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | Leg |
| Summer 2025 | Quadruped |
| Fall 2025 | Centaur |
| Spring 2026 | Biped |
While we are currently working on the leg, we plan to integrate it first into getting a quadruped to walk by the end of summer.
Then in the fall, we plan to develop a human torso which can attach onto the quadruped, creating a "centaur" design capable of manipulation tasks using our quadrupedal base.
By next year, we hope to integrate them all into a working humanoid.
🤝 Get Involved
Ready to contribute? Check out our Contributing Guide to get started!
- Hardware Development: Help with mechanical design, electronics, and modular interfaces
- Software Development: Contribute to control systems, simulation, and documentation
- Community Building: Help organize events, improve documentation, and spread the word
Together, we're building the future of humanoid robotics. 🤖