Tendon-driven musculoskeletal design
Roboy Junior uses 48 electric motor units connected to cable tendons and elastic springs, giving the body compliant, back-drivable motion. [5]
Roboy Junior
Specs, price & availability · verified Oct 2026
Roboy Junior is a 130 cm, 30 kg biped from University of Zurich AI Lab (Switzerland), discontinued with no published price.
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Height
- 130 cm
- Weight
- 30 kg
- Total DoF
- 28
Last verified Oct 10, 2026
Price & availability
University of Zurich AI Lab has not published a price
Discontinued
Current dataset status: Discontinued.
Product overview
About Roboy Junior
Roboy Junior is the first robot in the Roboy series. A team led by the University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory began the project in 2012 and presented the finished robot on 9 March 2013 at the laboratory's 25th-anniversary event. The university described it as 130 cm tall and capable of grasping, speaking and recognizing faces.
The robot's body was designed around compliant, tendon-driven artificial muscles rather than motors placed directly in its joints. A peer-reviewed paper by the lab describes 48 electric motor units, each combining actuation, proprioceptive sensing and local control electronics. Secondary technical listings report 30 kg and about 28 degrees of freedom; those figures are retained as reported rather than official specifications.
The original robot's code and CAD files were released through an official repository. Roboy Junior was followed by separately built Roboy 2.0 and Roboy 3.0 robots, so their FPGA, GPT-3 and telepresence features do not belong to this file. The project website now says Roboy has graduated and will no longer be updated. No price or purchase channel was published.
Capabilities
Key features
Distributed sensing and control
Each artificial-muscle unit combines a force sensor, two absolute encoders and local control electronics. [5]
Open-source research platform
The University of Zurich described the project as open source, and the original robot's software and CAD files remain available in the Roboy repository. [6][8]
Projected face and touch-sensing hands
Wikipedia says the face is a projection and that the hands carry capacitive touch sensors. [3]
Project graduated
The project page says Roboy has graduated and will no longer be updated. The effort continues under the Robody name. [2]
Hardware profile
Specifications
Official — stated by the manufacturer or organizerReported — stated by a credible third partyEstimated — derived or approximate
Body
- Height
- 130 cmOfficial — stated by the manufacturer or organizer[4]University of Zurich figure for the original robot; secondary sources variously report 120 or 142 cm
- Weight
- 30 kgReported — stated by a credible third party[3]Secondary technical listing for the original Roboy; no University of Zurich specification sheet was found
Mobility
Hands & Manipulation
- DoF per hand
- 1Reported — stated by a credible third party[3]One DoF per hand per Wikipedia
- Hand / end effector
- 1-DoF hand with capacitive touch sensorsReported — stated by a credible third party[3]
Compute & Sensing
- Sensors
- Stereo cameras, Microphone, Capacitive touch sensors (hands), Absolute position sensorReported — stated by a credible third party[3]
Show unknown fields (9)
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
Roboy Junior FAQ
Can you buy Roboy Junior?
No general order page is verified. Roboy Junior is currently classified as discontinued. [1]
How tall is Roboy Junior and how much does it weigh?
Roboy Junior is 130 cm tall and weighs 30 kg (Secondary technical listing for the original Roboy; no University of Zurich specification sheet was found). [4][3]
How many degrees of freedom does Roboy Junior have?
Roboy Junior has 28 listed degrees of freedom; About 28 DoF per a secondary technical listing; the peer-reviewed project paper confirms 48 motor units but not the DoF count. [3]
Does Roboy Junior have an open SDK?
Yes. Roboy Junior is recorded as providing a public developer SDK or API. [1]
Who makes Roboy Junior?
Roboy Junior is made by University of Zurich AI Lab, based in Switzerland. [1]
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Evaluation footprint
Benchmarks & competitions
No benchmark embodiments or results reference this robot yet.
Related
Similar robots
Evidence
Sources
- [1]Roboy Junior ↗Roboy · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [2]Roboy project home page (states the project has graduated) ↗Roboy · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [3]Roboy - Wikipedia ↗Wikipedia · database · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [4]Roboy goes on tour ↗University of Zurich · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [5]Soft Robotics: The Next Generation of Intelligent Machines ↗IJCAI · paper · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [6]Roboy Junior source code and CAD repository ↗Roboy · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [7]Roboy 270213 1.jpg ↗Wikimedia Commons · other · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [8]Artificial Intelligence Lab robot archive ↗University of Zurich · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026