Overview
South Korea's open-source answer to the Unitree G1. ROBOTIS — 25-year actuator veteran behind the DYNAMIXEL line — built the AI Sapiens K1 as a physical-AI research platform: 136 cm, 35 kg, 23 DOF on in-house DYNAMIXEL-Q quasi-direct-drive actuators, NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX and ROS 2. The differentiator is radical openness: hardware BoM, CAD/STEP files, source code, simulation assets and training workflows are all published, with imitation-learning leader-follower data collection built in. Target price ~$7,000-8,000 undercuts most research humanoids. One of 7 entries from ROBOTIS in this index — compare the sibling models before shortlisting. On paper: 136 cm tall, 35.0 kg, 23 degrees of freedom, 1.2 m/s top speed, 2 hours of rated runtime. Listed pricing starts around $8,000 (target range ~$7,000-8,000 per maker statements; store listing pending). Verification level: limited — key specs are maker-reported and worth confirming directly. AI Sapiens K1 is listed as shipping — available to order now, subject to the maker's stated lead times. Designed around research, education, physical ai development.
