HopeJR
HopeJR is a low-cost open-source humanoid announced by Hugging Face with The Robot Studio in May 2025, with 66 degrees of freedom and a target price of about USD 3,000. It is aimed at hobbyists and researchers using Hugging Face's LeRobot library.
The verdict
Not a robot so much as a pair of very capable open-source arms and hands you assemble yourself. At $3,000 it is the cheapest serious route into teleoperated manipulation research.
- Buy it if
- Manipulation research on a budget, and anyone comfortable with a kit.
- Skip it if
- You want something that arrives assembled and walks.
In its favour
- $3,000 for real dexterity
- Fully open design
- Hugging Face ecosystem
Against it
- Kit, not a product
- No locomotion
- Assembly required
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.
Similar money, different machine.
- Status
- Limited production
- Category
- platform
- First revealed
- 29 May 2025
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- n/a
- Weight
- n/a
- Payload
- n/a
- Degrees of freedom
- 66
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- n/a
- Actuation
- electric, hobby-grade servos
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- yes
Where it stands
Low-cost open-source humanoid announced May 2025 with The Robot Studio; first units shipped to early orders.
What stands out
- 66 DoF, about USD 3,000
- Open-source, LeRobot integration
Autonomy, observed
Designed for leader-follower teleoperation using exoskeleton arms and gloves.
Price and volume
around USD 3,000 target price announced
Open source
Hardware or software published under an open licence.
Index position
In the Humanoid Index, which ranks on shipped reality rather than value for money, HopeJR sits at #67 of 107 with 33 points: deployment 14/50, autonomy 4/30, availability 15/20. See that method.
How a humanoid robot works: actuators, compute, sensors and the model
Of 182 humanoids on record, 178 say what moves the joints and 43 say what computer is inside. The further a layer sits from the metal, the less the maker tells you about it.
Open-source humanoids: what you can actually build
24 of the 182 humanoids on record call themselves open source. 15 publish hardware files and software, 3 name a licence, 12 can be ordered, and none of the four on preorder has any autonomy evidence yet.
Startups, automakers, universities: who builds humanoids
108 makers, nine kinds. Startups hold 37 of the 44 humanoids you can order. Automakers, universities, big tech, conglomerates and NASA hold 45 robots between them and sell none of them.
China builds, America demos: what 108 makers tell you
Chinese makers account for 65 of the 182 humanoids in our record and 31 of the 44 you can order. American makers hold the money, the research and most of the autonomy claims, and sell you almost nothing.
Sources
- 01Hugging FaceHugging Face
Price sources
- 01Humanoid robots for sale: prices and US legalityRoboZaps · 2026-07-28
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