An interesting project has emerged from the students at Stanford University: Human Plus, a humanoid robot that closely resembles Atom from the movie Real Steel. Remarkably, it has the ability to copy human motions and possesses autonomous capabilities. Even more intriguing is that the creators made this project open source, encouraging the community to collaborate and enhance it further.
Human Plus is designed to perform shadowing, copying human motion without the need for other teleoperation methods. This approach is more affordable, requiring only one human operator with whole-body control. The robot also boasts autonomous capabilities such as folding clothes, high jumping, warehouse maintenance, typing on a keyboard, greeting other robots, and rearranging objects, among other tasks.
Above, you can see a collage image showcasing the activities Human Plus can perform. This astonishing project features a 33-DOF robot with two dexterous hands. The shadowing method is achieved with the help of an RGB camera, which records video of an actual human in front of it, estimating the body and hand poses of the human at 25 Hz. This data is then retargeted to the robot’s hands and body, with their dedicated Humanoid Shadowing Transformer model running the actuators of the robot at 50 Hz.
The main components used in Human Plus are the Unitree H1 Humanoid and Inspire-Robots RH56DFX Hands, which significantly increase the cost. This project has a BOM of approximately 90 lakhs, making it expensive. However, considering the advanced technology, it’s an impressive achievement.
Robots like Human Plus will undoubtedly find applications in various fields, revolutionizing industries and paving the way for future innovations. This project not only demonstrates the potential of humanoid robots but also highlights the importance of open-source collaboration in advancing technology.
