DARwIn-OP (Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence – Open Platform) is a miniature humanoid robot platform developed and manufactured by the Korean robot manufacturer Robotis, in collaboration with Virginia Tech, Purdue University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The project was also supported by a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
The robot stands approximately 455 mm (about 17.9 inches) tall and weighs roughly 2.8–2.9 kg. It features twenty degrees of freedom (DOF), with each joint controlled by a DYNAMIXEL MX-28T servo motor. Its degrees of freedom are distributed as six DOF per leg, three DOF per arm, and two DOF in the neck. The platform includes an onboard computing unit (such as a fit-PC2i) and a CM-730 sub-controller board, along with sensors including a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, buttons, and microphones. A USB webcam (e.g., Logitech C905) provides vision capabilities. Its default walking speed is approximately 24.0 cm/sec.
DARwIn-OP was designed primarily for research and education in fields such as humanoid robotics, artificial intelligence, gait algorithms, computer vision, inverse kinematics, and linguistics. It is an open platform, meaning both hardware and software sources are shared through a community, enabling broad customization and experimentation.
The platform achieved notable competitive success, winning the Kid Size League at the RoboCup competitions in 2011, 2012, and 2013. It has also been used in demonstrations such as playing Dance Dance Revolution and in assistive technology research. The DARwIn-OP was succeeded by later models in the ROBOTIS OP series, including the ROBOTIS OP2 and ROBOTIS OP3.
