Upper-torso humanoid
Cog has a head, two arms and a trunk with a flexible spine, and no legs, according to MIT's project page. [2]
MIT Cog
Specs, price & availability · verified Oct 2026
MIT Cog is a upper-body humanoid from MIT AI Lab (United States), discontinued with no published price.
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Total DoF
- 22
Last verified Oct 10, 2026
Price & availability
MIT AI Lab has not published a price
Discontinued
Current dataset status: Discontinued.
Product overview
About MIT Cog
Cog is an upper-torso humanoid robot built by the Humanoid Robotics Group at MIT, led by Rodney Brooks, with Lynn Andrea Stein as principal investigator. MIT's August 1993 technical memorandum described the project as an effort to build an integrated humanoid system. Cog has a head, two arms and a trunk with a flexible spine, but no legs.
MIT's hardware page lists 22 mechanical degrees of freedom: two six-DoF arms, a three-DoF torso, a four-DoF neck and three eye degrees of freedom. Each arm is powered by a DC motor through a series spring, and each eye carries a wide-angle and a narrow-angle camera. Most of the electronics are off-board, and the robot is mounted on a pedestal. A later research hand added two degrees of freedom through three articulated, mechanically coupled members; those hand axes are not part of MIT's 22-DoF body total.
Development had ceased by 2003. The robot has since been retired to the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where museum photographs show it on display. No commercial release is documented, and the sources reviewed give no height, weight or price.
Capabilities
Key features
22 mechanical degrees of freedom
MIT's hardware page totals 22 mechanical DoF: two six-DoF arms, a three-DoF torso, a four-DoF neck and three eye DoF. [3]
Series-spring arm drive
Each arm is powered by a DC electric motor through a series spring. The torso uses DC gearmotors with optical encoders. [3]
Retired to the MIT Museum
Wikipedia says development ceased by 2003, and the robot is now retired to the MIT Museum, where it is on display. [1][4]
Hardware profile
Specifications
Official — stated by the manufacturer or organizerReported — stated by a credible third partyEstimated — derived or approximate
Body
Mobility
Hands & Manipulation
- DoF per hand
- 2Official — stated by the manufacturer or organizer[6]Later series-elastic research hand; its two axes are not included in the 22-DoF body total
- Hand / end effector
- Three-member, 2-DoF series-elastic hand with mechanically coupled linksOfficial — stated by the manufacturer or organizer[6]
Compute & Sensing
- Sensors
- Wide-angle and narrow-angle camera in each eye, 3-axis inertial sensor, Optical encoders on each DoFOfficial — stated by the manufacturer or organizer[3]
Show unknown fields (11)
Body
- Height
- Not published
- Weight
- Not published
Mobility
- Maximum speed
- Not published
- Peak joint torque
- Not published
Power
- Battery
- Not published
- Runtime
- Not published
- Charge time
- Not published
- Swappable battery
- Not published
Hands & Manipulation
- Payload
- Not published
Compute & Sensing
- Onboard compute
- Not published
- AI stack
- Not published
Quick answers
MIT Cog FAQ
Can you buy MIT Cog?
No general order page is verified. MIT Cog is currently classified as discontinued. [3]
How many degrees of freedom does MIT Cog have?
MIT Cog has 22 listed degrees of freedom; Mechanical DoF including 4 neck and 3 eye DoF, per MIT's hardware page. [3]
Who makes MIT Cog?
MIT Cog is made by MIT AI Lab, based in United States. [3]
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Evaluation footprint
Benchmarks & competitions
No benchmark embodiments or results reference this robot yet.
Related
Similar robots
Evidence
Sources
- [1]Cog (project) - Wikipedia ↗Wikipedia · database · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [2]An Upper Torso Humanoid Robot (Cog project page, MIT) ↗MIT Media Lab · other · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [3]Cog hardware (MIT CSAIL Humanoid Robotics Group) ↗MIT CSAIL · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [4]File:Cog, 1993-2004, view 1 - MIT Museum - DSC03732.JPG (Wikimedia Commons) ↗Wikimedia Commons · other · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [5]Building Brains for Bodies ↗MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory · paper · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [6]A Force Sensing and Compliant Humanoid Robot Hand ↗MIT CSAIL · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026