Berkeley Humanoid Lite is an open-source humanoid from UC Berkeley whose actuators use 3D-printed cycloidal gearboxes around off-the-shelf brushless drone-style motors. It walks with reinforcement-learning policies trained in Isaac Lab and can be teleoperated for manipulation, with a total parts cost under $5,000.
At a glance
| Parts cost | under $5,000 project · The project states a total parts cost under $5,000 source ↗ |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 4/5 Advanced · Builds its own actuators, flashes motor-driver firmware, handles high-power wiring and needs an Isaac Lab GPU setup, though no machining or custom PCBs. |
| Build time | Not stated |
| Tools needed | 3D printer with at least a 200 x 200 x 200 mm bed, PLA (Bambu X1C profiles provided), soldering iron and heat-set insert tool, hot glue gun, hex key set |
| Motors | 22 actuators built from MAD Components 5010 and 6512 brushless motors with 3D-printed cycloidal gearboxes |
| Controller | Beelink N95 mini PC on board, B-G431B-ESC1 motor drivers with Recoil firmware over CAN |
| Sensors | IMU (upgrade options documented), modified AS5600 magnetic encoders |
| Published | ✓ Parts list✓ CAD/STL✓ Assembly guide✓ Wiring✓ Software✓ Video GitBook docs + GitHub (code, assets and low-level submodules), Google Sheets parts list, Onshape CAD, MakerWorld print files, YouTube videos |
| Activity | Last update 2026-03-10 · 1,938 GitHub stars · Discord and WeChat groups, 304 GitHub forks |
| Kits | None known |
Licenses
| Design files | CC BY-SA 4.0 ('other assets' per README; the assets repo is tagged CC-BY-SA-4.0) source ↗ |
|---|---|
| Code | MIT source ↗ |
| Documentation | None found (GitBook docs carry no license statement) source ↗ |
Builder notes
Practical points from the project's issue tracker, forum and docs, each linked to its source.
- The MAD Components 5010 110KV motor in the parts list was reported discontinued within days of release. The team later published characterization data for 140KV and 310KV versions, and builders have also tried 200KV motors. source ↗
- The early parts list had several errors that were fixed in later releases (motor count, swapped bearing descriptions, missing M2 inserts and 6803 bearing), and the release log should be checked before ordering. source ↗
- The Onshape models are view-only, so adapting the design to other motors means copying the document into a personal workspace first. source ↗
- The AS5600 encoder boards need a small resistor change before use, which involves fine SMD rework that some builders found tricky. source ↗
- The pinned Isaac Lab and PyTorch versions did not support RTX 50-series GPUs, and a later update moved the stack forward to fix this. source ↗
Other humanoids plans
- InMoov · $1,300–$1,400 · difficulty 3/5
- ToddlerBot · under $6,000 · difficulty 4/5
- Poppy Humanoid · $8,500 (2021) · difficulty 3/5
- Asimov 1 (Menlo Research) · $20,000 · difficulty 5/5