Humanoid Robots

RoboticsSelect supplies two clearly differentiated humanoid platforms as an authorized dealer: the LimX Dynamics Oli EDU, a tabletop bipedal humanoid built for university coursework and locomotion research, and the Astribot S1, a full-size dual-arm humanoid engineered for general-purpose manipulation. Between them they cover the two questions humanoid research actually asks: how to walk, and how to work with human-like hands.

Humanoid robots have moved from demo curiosities to serious research infrastructure. Labs use them to study bipedal locomotion, reinforcement learning with sim-to-real transfer, human-robot interaction, and manipulation policies trained by demonstration. Both platforms here expose open SDKs with ROS 2 Humble integration and ship with simulator support, so your team's existing software workflows transfer directly to the hardware.

The Oli EDU packs 12 actuated joints into a 70 cm, 8 kg frame — large enough to exhibit real bipedal dynamics, small enough that a fall risks neither students nor budgets. Conservative factory torque limits, compliance control, a fall-detect routine that cuts joint power, and a physical kill switch make it genuinely classroom-safe, and an included AC tether keeps the battery out of the equation during long code-iteration sessions at the bench.

The research workflow is the reason it exists: Python and C++ SDKs, ROS 2 Humble packages, and calibrated URDF models for MuJoCo and Isaac Sim, with sample PPO and SAC training scripts published by LimX. The standard pipeline — train a walking policy in simulation, validate it, deploy to hardware — is achievable within a single semester; most teams demonstrate robust walking plus push-recovery in that time.

For teaching at scale, a typical lab runs 2 to 4 Oli units for a 20-student class rotating through hands-on sessions; each robot pairs uniquely with its own controller, so multiple units share one room without cross-talk. Educational pricing and the 12-month manufacturer warranty are both coordinated through RoboticsSelect as the authorized LimX Dynamics dealer.

The S1 stands roughly 1.7 m with two 7-degree-of-freedom arms delivering end-effector speeds up to 10 m/s, position repeatability near 0.1 mm, and force-control resolution down to 0.1 N — enough finesse for pouring, folding cloth, and light assembly. Astribot deliberately puts it on a wheeled base: the resources bipedal humanoids spend on balance go into arms and AI compute instead, which is why the S1 carries two NVIDIA Jetson Orin AGX modules totaling 270 TOPS.

New skills come from demonstration rather than months of hand-coding: an operator performs the task through the included VR teleoperation setup, and imitation learning turns roughly 10 to 50 demonstrations into a deployable policy. A pre-built library of primitives — grasping, pouring, stacking — chains into tasks out of the box, and the Python SDK with ROS 2 Humble integration exposes everything down to joint-level control, alongside stereo hand-eye cameras, a head-mounted depth camera, a microphone array, and wrist force-torque sensors.

The S1 is a build-to-order platform with an 8-to-12-week lead time and quote-based final configuration; it suits research labs, controlled industrial cells, and supervised demonstrations rather than unsupervised public deployment. It carries a 24-month manufacturer warranty on hardware (12 months on the battery system), with service handled through RoboticsSelect.

Start from the research question. If it is locomotion — gait learning, balance, terrain — a legged platform is the point: the Oli EDU at classroom scale, or the LimX TRON1 full-size biped in our quadruped and legged robots collection when you need field-scale dynamics. If it is manipulation — grasping, tool use, household tasks — the S1's dual arms and sensor stack are the shortest path to publishable work.

Then audit the practical criteria that decide whether a platform gets used or gathers dust: SDK openness and documentation, ROS 2 support, simulator fidelity (URDF and MJCF availability), sensor expansion headroom, payload budget, spare parts and warranty channel, and the safety requirements of your space — the S1 needs flat floors and reliable Wi-Fi, while a 65 kg research biped needs a fall-arrest gantry and clear protocols. Our team will talk through your use case honestly, including when the right answer is a less expensive quadruped.

The Oli EDU lists at $60,000 and the Astribot S1 at $100,000, quoted to final configuration. We work with university procurement teams on formal quotes and purchase orders — call (412) 415-7375 or email support@roboticsselect.com, Monday-Friday 9am-5pm EST. Because both platforms are priced over $2,000, our price match policy applies at its strongest: verified lower pricing from an authorized retailer is beaten by $50, not just matched.

Shipping is free to the contiguous 48 US states, including crated freight, with tracking sent within 24 hours of dispatch. One important note: build-to-order platforms like the S1 are produced specifically for your order, and under our refund policy custom and made-to-order builds are final sale, while the standard 30-day return-initiation window applies to stock items. We confirm which case applies, in writing, before you commit.