[HN Gopher] Berkeley Humanoid Lite - Open-source robot
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Berkeley Humanoid Lite - Open-source robot
Author : ratsbane
Score : 255 points
Date : 2025-04-26 01:03 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lite.berkeley-humanoid.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (lite.berkeley-humanoid.org)
| frainfreeze wrote:
| the cost-effectiveness/performance factor benchmark is
| interesting, but it feels slightly misleading - I just don't see
| how "average peak torque of all actuated DoFs, normalized by the
| robot's size" is related to measuring "accessibility and
| customizability" of the robot.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| What is interesting is that on their own metric, the Berkley
| Humanoid is only twice as expensive as the Berkley Humanoid
| Lite but has more than twice the "performance factor" (0.36 vs
| 0.14).
|
| It shows they threw away too much while creating the lite
| version.
| kaonwarb wrote:
| Rather, I think we can say based on those datapoints that for
| their design, performance scales superlinearly with cost. Not
| surprising given fixed costs!
| 4ndrewl wrote:
| Depends on the relative market size for performance factor
| though. If 90 percent of the market is captured by a 0.14
| performance factor then that extra in price could be put
| towards solving another problem.
| em0sh wrote:
| The performance factor vs. torque vs. DOFs is the most silly
| thing as a licensed mechanical engineer I have ever seen. And I
| was around for Kony 2012.
| djaychela wrote:
| Can you explain why to the layman?
| asah wrote:
| https://chatgpt.com/share/680cb5ae-10d8-8007-a580-b7c3266138.
| ..
|
| The comment criticizes a chart or metric comparing
| "performance factor" to torque and degrees of freedom (DOFs)
| in robotics, calling it "the most silly thing" the commenter,
| a licensed mechanical engineer, has seen. By referencing
| "Kony 2012"--a widely mocked internet campaign--they
| emphasize their point about the chart's perceived absurdity.
| ([The performance factor vs. torque vs. DOFs is the most
| silly thing as ...](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4380
| 1052&utm_source=cha...))
|
| The critique likely stems from the idea that combining
| performance factor, torque, and DOFs into a single comparison
| oversimplifies complex engineering concepts. Torque and DOFs
| are distinct mechanical properties, and "performance factor"
| is a vague term without a clear definition. Such a chart
| might misleadingly suggest direct correlations where none
| exist, leading to confusion or misinterpretation.
|
| In essence, the commenter is expressing frustration over what
| they see as a technically flawed and potentially misleading
| representation of robotic performance metrics.
| rout39574 wrote:
| Why do you think this excessively verbose bit of LLM vomit
| contributes to the conversation?
| demaga wrote:
| Very cool! Open source robotics is something I always imagined to
| be a part of the future. Hope the idea catches on.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Robot gets Piercing in Berkeley:
|
| https://youtu.be/0Gkl1H2eKsM?t=99
|
| Servitude: Robot Waiter:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXsUetUzXlg
|
| Empathy: Broken Robot:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXrbqXPnHvE
| bk496 wrote:
| A left handed robot!
| bjackman wrote:
| I think this is a great idea. It seems like we are entering the
| phase where the core hardware problems are solved and we now need
| to:
|
| A) bring down cost and expand the design space for the hardware
| and
|
| B) minimise the barriers to working on the "software" problems
| where there still seem to be huge areas of mostly unaddressed
| challenges.
|
| An open source platform seems like a good thing for both.
| RetroTechie wrote:
| As much as I like the concept, 3D printing everything is _not_
| the way to lower cost.
|
| Mass-produced (stamped / extruded / whatever) mechanical parts +
| hackable 'brains' is.
|
| Robots _do_ lend themselves well w / respect to that last part.
| Worst case is rip out its control electronics wholesale & replace
| with your own motor drivers etc.
| abeindoria wrote:
| Hm, perhaps not - but maybe give the users an option to print
| such parts, and warn that they may affect longevity of said
| parts if they do decide to go full manufacturing route.
|
| My potential concern is the "Apple" gatekeeping of parts.
| taneq wrote:
| It depends what you're doing. High volume parts, absolutely.
| It's one of the things that bugs me about the "3D printers
| printing printers" type projects. 3D printing is terrible for
| mass producing parts. If you're making 1000+ of something,
| injection mold it.
|
| Low volume, probably customized parts like R&D robotics tends
| to need? 3D printing is great, especially if the design files
| are available so you can modify the parts as required before
| printing. And then if you break something you can print another
| one off overnight instead of stalling your project for weeks
| waiting for new parts to arrive.
| esafak wrote:
| A 3D printed robot that costs $5000 exerts pressure on the
| price of mass-produced competitors.
| larodi wrote:
| https://lite.berkeley-humanoid.org/static/comparision.png
|
| why does it say the Berkeley Humanoid is closed source here? Is
| it a typo, was this paper peer-reviewed?
| ChosenEnd wrote:
| The "Berkeley Humanoid" is a distinct robot (they have the
| "Berkeley Humanoid Lite" named "ours" and colored in orange as
| the rightmost point on their graph).
| gitroom wrote:
| been cool watching robots go open source like this, always gets
| me thinking how much i could hack together something dumb just to
| see if it works
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| I have long assumed that we won't be getting robot butlers partly
| because it's really really hard, but also because most of not all
| things we want robots for it's easier to reconfigure the
| environment than make a flexible humaniod
|
| So factories are obvious but the real mass uptake is the home -
| and honestly I think something that cleans and tidies an hour a
| day might actually be achievable
| hidelooktropic wrote:
| How does that work for things like taking out the trash, doing
| dishes, and folding laundry?
| devrandoom wrote:
| Robots that take over the old fashioned traditional housewife
| job will cause an outrage.
| NitpickLawyer wrote:
| Wait till they get access to the "MCP" for making tiktok
| content - "I'm a tradbot, and I like it!" / "You won't
| believe what this roomba did to my cleaning routine!" ...
| MoonGhost wrote:
| What is the way to go in hobby robotics today? I'm more
| interested in high level, and want the lower level to 'just work'
| with minimum efforts from my side. Having mechanical part and
| vision what would be the right choice for low-middle software to
| control robotic arm and car, may be attached one to another.
| ROS2?
| pryelluw wrote:
| I'd say start with a sumo robot, line follower, or maze solver.
| That'll keep you very entertained for a good while.
| MoonGhost wrote:
| Thanks, but no. It's going to be robotic arm with gripper and
| camera. The rest can be either Raspberry Zero (for cam,
| control, with net or blutooth, something big for high level).
| Another option, not exclusive, NVidia Jetson Nano instead of
| Zero. It could be Raspberry Pi 3, but I don't want to do
| video processing on it. All this I have, just need to put
| them together. Adding AGX Orin will be a big thing. That's
| actually the goal. With video processing and LLM all in one
| mobile robot. As it's hobby R/D it will be configured and
| reconfigured many times. That's why I don't want to do low
| level by hand every time.
|
| Another interesting option is Raspberry Pico * N + Tiny PC.
| For control and thinking. They can be connected via wifi or
| blutooth.
| sadhorse wrote:
| What kind of vision peocessing are you envisioning?
| ww520 wrote:
| Micro mouse is a good way to get into robotic.
| ratsbane wrote:
| HuggingFace LeRobot. You can build the reference arm easily and
| cheaply and the software is designed to train AI. There's a lot
| to explore and extend there and the community is growing
| rapidly. It's based on the Stanford Aloha project.
| https://huggingface.co/lerobot
| tomp wrote:
| LeRobot is 6DoF.
|
| How much does this matter in practice vs 7DoF arm?
| ratsbane wrote:
| Probably not much. Also the LeRobot reference arm (SO-
| ARM100) is 6DoF, but it's very hackable and there are
| already project with different grippers, etc.
| dheera wrote:
| I was hoping "Lite" would be a smaller humanoid that I could
| build for <$5K, but this looks expensive.
| autobodie wrote:
| The demonstrator should close his legs and wear some more
| appropriate attire. Robots are no excuse for vulgar displays as
| such.
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