The iCub can be obtained from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia for a fee (indicative prices are shown below). We do not make a profit from this activity but nonetheless we strive to provide the best possible quality and first class support to all iCub owners. We would like to promote high quality research through high quality robotics. Join one of the most vibrant robotics communities in the world by getting yourself an iCub robot.
For official quotations or general enquiries about the iCub please contact Giorgio Metta at info@icub.org.
Product catalog
The full iCub
This is the iCub as seen on video: 53 motors, 9 degrees of freedom in each hand, full sensorization, force/torque sensing, full body covers with sensorized skin, compliant legs, complete interface, power supply, a laptop with the latest software (YARP), and shipping & handling.
Click here to download the datasheet
iCub versions:
1.x: we do not build iCubs in any version 1.x although we upgrade them to the latest versions by replacing the head with better mechanics, include the latest electronics, we also add the full skin system and can install the compliant legs for walking.
2.5: this is the iCub which includes compliant legs derived from the Coman design, battery backpack. This represents the first synthesis of IIT's development of the small humanoids. Several improvements with respect to 1.x versions are especially visible in the hand and head design.
2.7: this is the very latest iCub which includes seeral updates with respect to 2.5. In particular new face expression with RGB leds, skin boards with 9 axis IMUs, and an additional high performance IMU in the waist.
iCub is fully configured and ready to run in minutes after installation.
It can be also equipped with a transportable pre-configured set of servers including GPUs and network switches as needed. The indicative costs to build a full iCub amount to 250,000 Euros.
The iCub upper body
At times legs are not needed and therefore an upper body is the most convenient solution. This is a bit cheaper than the full iCub while still maintaining most of its advanced technologies. The upper body normally includes the three degree of freedom waist for increased reaching workspace, skin, the head, and hands.
Click here to download the datasheet
The indicative price for an upper body of the iCub is 200,000 Euros.
The iCub head
The iCub head can be configured as a stand-alone robotic setup. It includes cameras, microphones, gyros and accelerometers. It has six degrees of freedom with zero-backlash harmonic drive gears. It includes a simple set of facial expressions for interaction behaviors and a dual-core CPU with external Ethernet interface.
Click here to download the datasheet
The indicative price of the iCub head is 40,000 Euros.
The iCub hand
The iCub hand is a dexterous hand with five fingers actuated by nine motors through a set of tendons. It includes three degree of freedom wrist and tactile sensors in the palm and fingertips. The thumb, index and middle fingers can be controlled independently. The remaining ones are actuated by a single motor for opening/closing them.
The CAN bus-based microcontroller cards
A family of microcontroller based cards was used to move the iCub in the version 1.x and they are still in use in the standard production robots. These are interfaced via CAN-bus to a PC104 dual-core CPU which runs the standard iCub control and interface software.
These cards allows controlling either brushless or brushed motors, generate trajectories, acquire data from sensors, etc.
iCub Skin
The iCub skin is a set of capacitive sensors (about 2000 sensing points) distributed throughout the upper body. This provides a measure of contact position and intensity that can be used for better and safer human-robot interaction. The skin can be colored and personalized with various drawings.
R1 - Full Robot
This is the R1 as seen on video: eight degrees of freedom arms, six degrees of freedom (two degrees of actuation) hands, four degree of freedom extensible torso (the robot torso is equipped with a mechanism that allows it to vary its height from a minimum of 1.15m to a maximum of 1.35m), two degrees of freedom head, two wheels. The robot is equipped with high performance CPU (i7) and two NVIDIA Jetson TX2, wifi 802.11ac, RGBD camera, two lidars in the base, F/T sensors in the arms and battery pack.
R1 is fully configured and ready to run in minutes after installation.