Kepler Forerunner K1
Forerunner K1 was Shanghai startup Kepler's first humanoid, shown at CES 2024 with a stated USD 30,000 target price and roller-screw linear actuators similar in concept to Tesla Optimus.
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.
Similar money, different machine.
- Status
- Discontinued
- Category
- industrial
- First revealed
- November 2023
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- 178 cm
- Weight
- 85 kg
- Payload
- n/a
- Degrees of freedom
- 40 (+12 per hand)
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- n/a
- Actuation
- electric, planetary roller screw linear actuators
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- unknown
Where it stands
First generation revealed November 2023; replaced by K2 Bumblebee.
What stands out
- USD 30,000 target price
Autonomy, observed
Walking demos at CES 2024.
Hands, sensors, brain
- Hands: 12-DOF hands
Price and volume
Target price of about USD 30,000 stated at launch; not a confirmed sale price.
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.
Why hands are the hardest part of a humanoid
Of 182 humanoids on record, 96 describe their hands and 13 publish a degrees-of-freedom figure for them. The word dexterous appears 21 times and comes with a number once.
Other robots by Kepler Robotics.
Sources
- 01
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