Menlo Ships Asimov 1, a 1.2m DIY Humanoid Robot With a Free Browser-Based Digital Twin
Sentdex · x · 2026-10-22
Menlo Research is now shipping Asimov 1, pitched as the most developer-friendly humanoid robot, with first kits already delivered to builders in the US, Germany, France, Poland, Thailand, and the UAE; Batch 4 is forming with a $499 deposit.
Key facts:
- 1.2m tall, 35kg, ships with everything needed to operate in one box — buyers can program, mod, and extend it themselves
- Digital Asimov, a free browser-based digital twin, lets developers run code and see movement without hardware
- Strong community traction: one builder used GPT-6 Astra to create a 3D site exploding the robot into 1,168 CAD components; Michelle Sun, Paige Bailey, and robotics researcher Chris Paxton weighed in or built on it
- Bailey notes that seven months in, it's a real walking humanoid with head and arms
The open hardware + open software/models + DIY kit approach is being hailed by practitioners as the right path for robotics.
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