PETMAN
PETMAN was a hydraulic, tethered humanoid built by Boston Dynamics for the US Department of Defense to test chemical protection suits by walking, crouching and sweating. Videos in 2011 and 2013 showed it walking on a treadmill and doing push-ups. Its anthropomorphic legs and balance work fed directly into the first Atlas.
We have not sat down with this one. The score below is computed from the data we hold, and the facts on this page are sourced. It is not on sale, so there is nothing to recommend.
How the score is built
Capability is what the machine physically does. Value compares it with others at a similar price, not with the whole market. Buyability asks whether you can really order one. Ecosystem is the software and community around it. Proof is what it has done in the field, which is where most humanoids score badly and should.
- Status
- Retired
- Category
- historic
- First revealed
- 2011
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- 180 cm
- Weight
- 80 kg
- Payload
- n/a
- Degrees of freedom
- n/a
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- 1.3 m/s
- Actuation
- hydraulic, tethered
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- no
Where it stands
Built for the US Army to test chemical protective clothing; work ended around 2013 and led into Atlas.
What stands out
- Tethered hydraulic biped for suit testing
- Walked at about 4.8 km/h on a treadmill
- Direct predecessor to Atlas
Price and volume
government contract, no price
Milestones.
Boston Dynamics completes PETMAN for testing chemical protection suits
PETMAN, funded by the US Army, is an anthropomorphic robot that walks, crouches and sweats to test protective clothing. Its dynamic balance and hydraulic actuation are the direct basis for Atlas.
Other robots by Boston Dynamics.
Atlas (electric)
The electric Atlas, revealed on 17 April 2024, replaced the hydraulic Atlas with a fully electric design whose joints rotate through 360 degrees. Boston Dynamics is developing it as a commercial factory robot with Hyundai Motor Group and using large behavior models from Toyota Research Institute and Google DeepMind. A production-intent version was unveiled at CES in January 2026.
Atlas (hydraulic)
The hydraulic Atlas was unveiled in July 2013 for the DARPA Robotics Challenge and became the best-known research humanoid of the 2010s through its parkour and backflip videos. Later versions were 150 cm tall, 89 kg and had 28 hydraulic joints. Boston Dynamics retired it in April 2024.
Sources
- 01Legacy robotsBoston Dynamics
- 02PETMANWikipedia
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