Asimov Is An Open Source Humanoid Robot For The Rest Of Us - Hackaday
Skip to content # Asimov Is An Open Source Humanoid Robot For The Rest Of Us 4 Comments by: Tyler August May 16, 2026 Given that some of the more famous demos were by Honda and Tesla, you might be forgiven for thinking you need pockets as deep as a car comp...
Key takeaways
China is accelerating its humanoid‑robot rollout in 2026, with over 140 domestic manufacturers and more than 330 models already released, as part of a government‑backed blueprint that pairs robots with AI, quantum tech, brain‑computer interfaces and 6G. In the United States, Figure AI streamed a humanoid warehouse worker that completed an eight‑hour shift without failure and continued for 24 hours, sorting more than 30,000 packages, showcasing the reliability needed for commercial deployment. Industry analysis from IDTechEx projects the average selling price of humanoid robots to fall from roughly $115 k in 2024 to about $37 k by 2030, driving payback periods down to six months in high‑utilisation scenarios and projecting annual shipments of 1.8 million units by 2036, especially in automotive manufacturing. Meanwhile, Sanctuary AI warns that home deployment remains at least three to seven years away, citing unit‑economics and safety challenges, even as Canadian startup 1X begins full‑scale production of its Neo robot for limited pre‑orders. On the open‑source front, the Asimov V1 kit offers a $15 k, 25‑degree‑of‑freedom platform for hobbyists and researchers, marking a shift toward more accessible humanoid development. Finally, the Robotics Summit highlighted a systems‑level roadmap—integrating high‑bandwidth sensor fusion, edge AI, precise motor control and robust communications—to scale next‑generation humanoids for safer, more efficient operation in both industrial and emerging service settings.
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Asimov Is An Open Source Humanoid Robot For The Rest Of Us
4 Comments
by: Tyler August
May 16, 2026
Given that some of the more famous demos were by Honda and Tesla, you might be forgiven for thinking you need pockets as deep as a car company to get into humanoid robotics — and maybe that was true once, but now Asimov v1 is here. It doesn’t have a positronic brain, and you’ll have to code in the Three Laws for yourself, but at least you have the freedom to, because Asimov is open source. No word on if this robot can write a symphony — though we’ve seen software that can — and its 5 kg personal best for squats and 18 kg single-arm lat raises aren’t going to impress the bros at the gym. But hey, at least now you have someone to shake your chair for sim gaming. If you’re wondering what the deal with these androids is, well, so were we.
4 thoughts on “Asimov Is An Open Source Humanoid Robot For The Rest Of Us”
- Just what we need. A bunch of easy to hack foreign robots that are humanoid shaped and left powered on all day waiting for there owners instruction.
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Reply 2. $15K BOM is more than buy it now free shipping ready to use Unitree G1
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- These guys for 13k a pop?
Report comment;) It’s not exactly cheap: the kit version comes with a target price of $15,000 USD, but they do provide the Bill of Materials on the GitHub repository so you can try and hunt down some deals. Still, compared to the millions poured into these sorts of robots in the early days, we have to consider it accessible. With 25 total degrees of freedom, you’ll have to source a lot of actuators, but at least the onboard compute will be easy to get. Rather than begging CERN for spare positrons, you’ only need a Raspberry 5 and a Radaxa CM5.
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