Stanford scientists introduce robot capable of accurately reproducing human movements, including in real time

A team of Stanford University scientists has unveiled a new humanoid robot, HumanPlus, which is capable of learning and accurately reproducing complex sequences of human movements. The robot can also copy movements in real time.

According to the developers, HumanPlus only needs 40 hours of video footage of people performing a task to learn how to repeat those actions on its own. Moreover, thanks to the built-in camera, the robot can follow the movements of people in real time and immediately imitate them, reports Interesting Engineering.

Structurally, HumanPlus is based on the Chinese company Unitree's commercial humanoid H1 robot, but with a completely different software platform and some other third-party components. The robot is equipped with "arms" made by Inspire-Robots and "wrists" made by another supplier. The height of the robot is about 175 cm.

A distinguishing feature of HumanPlus is that the robot is open source, which means that anyone can modify the structure and functionality of the robot. The developers have also published a GitHub repository with detailed documentation that allows engineers and enthusiasts to build a similar model themselves.

Information about the cost of all components spent on the creation of HumanPlus is publicly available. According to the scientists' rough calculations, the total cost of the components was 107,945 dollars. Considering the robot's wide range of motion, this figure seems quite competitive compared to alternatives on the market today.

Interestingly, the introduction of HumanPlus coincided with the announcement by American businessman Elon Musk that by the end of the year, more than 1,000 Optimus humanoid robots will be working in Tesla factories. The head of the company expressed hope that the mass sale of Optimus will begin next year, and Tesla will turn into a 25 trillion dollar business. Previously, Musk has repeatedly emphasized that he considers Optimus to be the most important product of Tesla in the future.