Humanoid & robot atlas
PETMAN
Photo: Boston Dynamics (official image), from web.archive.org. Image policy
RetiredSucceeded by Atlas (DRC hydraulic Atlas) United States

Boston Dynamics · military humanoid

PETMAN

A tethered, hydraulic, human-size test mannequin that walked, crawled, squatted and did push-ups. First video (Oct 2009) showed 3.2 mph; 2010 video reached 4.4 mph (7.1 km/h); the full robot appeared in 2011.

Price
—US$26.3 million US Army program (development cost, not a sale price)
Height
178 cmTaller than 84%
Weight
79.4 kgHeavier than 72%
Payload
—Not published
Speed
7.1 km/hFaster than 76%
Battery
—Not published
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Why it matters

Boston Dynamics' first humanoid biped and the direct ancestor of Atlas; it could sweat and control skin temperature to test protective suits.

Real-world use

Built to test US military chemical-protective clothing; shown in a hazmat suit in 2013.

Timeline

First shown
2009-10
Released
Not yet
Boston Dynamics prototype treadmill video

Maker

Boston DynamicsCompany · founded 1992 · Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

Owned by Hyundai Motor Group since June 2021 (80% stake bought from SoftBank for about $880M; SoftBank kept about 20%).

How it stacks up

Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.

  1. Rollin' JustinGerman Aerospace Center (DLR) · 2008191 cm
  2. PETMANBoston Dynamics · 2009178 cm
  3. REEMPAL Robotics · 2010170 cm
  4. PR2Willow Garage · 2010165 cm
  5. HRP-4CAIST · 2009158 cm
  6. REEM-BPAL Robotics · 2008147 cm
  7. HUBO 2 (KHR-4)KAIST Hubo Lab (Jun-Ho Oh) · 2009125 cm
  8. ECCE (ECCEROBOT)The Robot Studio and the EU ECCEROBOT project · 2009105 cm

PETMAN is taller than 84% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.

Height 178 cm 34 cm213 cm #51 of 306 · taller than 84%

Not published by the maker: payload, battery, price.

Public attention

A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current humanoids.

  • No Wikipedia article of its own yet
  • 3 news stories from reputable press listed on this page

Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured

What’s inside

The parts the company has talked about publicly.

Hands
simple
Movement
Walks on legs · 29 joints
Actuators & motors
Custom hydraulic actuators; 29 degrees of freedom.
Compute
Custom PC.
Battery & power
Tethered power; an untethered version with its own power source was proposed (Army Technology).
AI & software
Walking algorithm and mechanical design based on Boston Dynamics' BigDog (IEEE Spectrum).
Other details
Built to test chemical protective clothing for soldiers: it controls its own skin temperature and humidity and sweats like a person. Sized as a 50th-percentile man, about 180 lb; reached 4.4 mph walking.

Lineage

Every Boston Dynamics humanoid in order.

  1. PETMANPETMAN2009Retired
  2. Atlas (DRC hydraulic Atlas)Atlas (DRC hydraulic Atlas)2013Retired
  3. Atlas (next generation)Atlas (next generation)2016Retired
  4. Atlas (electric prototype)Atlas (electric prototype)2024Prototype
  5. Atlas (product version)Atlas (product version)2026Pilot use

Boston Dynamics also makes 15 machines. See every Boston Dynamics robot

Watch PETMAN

Video: Boston Dynamics on YouTube. Plays from youtube-nocookie.com when you press play.

Made, sold and where

Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.

Price
Not publishedUS$26.3 million US Army program (development cost, not a sale price)
How to get one
No official buying page found
Built
Built for a US$26.3 million US Army programme (development, 30 months to build and validate).
Sold or delivered
Not sold.
Where it is sold or used
United States
Customers and pilots
US Army / DARPA; partners Midwest Research Institute, Measurement Technologies Northwest, Smith Carter CUH2A and HHI Corporation

News

The latest 3, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.

  1. PETMAN due for delivery

    DARPA was due to take delivery of PETMAN later in 2012.

    Army Technology
  2. PETMAN reaches 4.4 mph

    A treadmill video showed PETMAN walking at 4.4 mph.

    IEEE Spectrum
  3. First PETMAN video

    Boston Dynamics showed PETMAN's legs walking on a treadmill.

    IEEE Spectrum

Side by side with its peers

Picked by the same rules for every humanoid: another maker’s robot that moves the same way, is at the same stage and does at least one of the same main jobs, first shown within two years. Closer size and price rank higher. Few robots match closely, so these are the nearest matches. How we choose

Full comparison
MeasurePETMANPETMANBoston DynamicsTHOR / SAFFiRTHOR / SAFFiRVirginia Tech TREC Lab (for the US Office of Naval Research)Same job: military · Both walk · Both past robots · Similar size
First shown2009-102014-11-03
StatusRetiredRetired
Height178 cm178 cm
Weight79.4 kg64 kg
Joints29—
Speed7.1 km/h—
Payload——
Battery——
Price——

Sources

Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.

IEEE Spectrum First Video of Boston Dynamics PETMAN Biped (26 Oct 2009) IEEE Spectrum Boston Dynamics Biped Petman Achieves 4.4 mph Army Technology Featurefirst: BigDog, now PETMAN Army Technology PETMAN Humanoid Robot Logo: Cleanoxygenforeveryone, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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