Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) · research humanoid
COMAN
COmpliant huMANoid
A child-sized compliant biped grown out of IIT's iCub and cCub work, with torque sensing in every motor and elastic elements in key joints so it can absorb bumps and falls safely.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- 95 cmTaller than 7%
- Weight
- 31.2 kgHeavier than 16%
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
Not sure this is the one? Find the best robot for your job Starts with: research and teaching. Five more quick questions.
Why it matters
A retired humanoid from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT).
Real-world use
No customers or deployments reported yet.
Timeline
- First shown
- 2012
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)Government lab · founded 2003 · Genoa, ItalyAbout EUR 90 million a year from the Italian government; RobotCub received EUR 8.5 million from the European Commission
How it stacks up
Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
COMAN (COmpliant huMANoid) is taller than 7% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
COMAN (COmpliant huMANoid) is heavier than 16% of the 277 other humanoids that publish a weight. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
COMAN (COmpliant huMANoid) has more joints than 30% of the 236 other humanoids that publish a joints. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: speed, 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
- 1 news story 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.
- Movement
- Walks on legs · 25 joints
- Actuators & motors
- Over 30 torque-controlled brushless DC motors; 14 custom modular series elastic actuators on the flexion/extension joints of the arms and legs, mixing passive and active compliance.
- Hands
- None fitted in early versions; IEEE Spectrum (April 2013) said a pair of hands had been finished and would be added later.
- Sensors & vision
- Torque and position sensing on every joint; six-axis force/torque sensors at the ankles and wrists; IMU in the torso. No cameras listed (a head was still in development in 2013).
- Compute
- Two on-board PC/104 embedded computers plus custom DSP joint controllers.
- Battery & power
- 29 V lithium-ion polymer battery; about 2 hours of operation.
- Materials & build
- Titanium-alloy, stainless steel and aluminium-alloy structure (titanium torso) under an ABS plastic shell.
- AI & software
- Linux with the Xenomai real-time framework; stabilisation controllers that kept it steady on a moving platform and when pushed.
- Other details
- Sized like a four-year-old. The team picked joint stiffness using resonance analysis and energy-storage maximisation. Partly funded by the EU AMARSi project.
Lineage
Every Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) humanoid in order.
iCub2008Research- No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useCOMAN (COmpliant huMANoid)2012Retired
WALK-MAN2015Research
R12016Prototype
ALTER-EGO2017Pilot use
iCub32022Research
ergoCub2023Prototype
iRonCub32025Research
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) also makes 3 machines. See every Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) robot
Watch COMAN (COmpliant huMANoid)
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Sold or delivered
- not sold (research robot)
- Where it is sold or used
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Italy
News
The latest 1, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- IIT's compliant COMAN shrugs off shoves
IEEE Spectrum showed the child-sized biped absorbing impacts with its springy joints and balancing on a moving platform.
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. How we choose
| Measure | No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useCOMAN (COmpliant huMANoid)Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) | No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to usePneubornOsaka University (Koh Hosoda lab)Same job: research · Both walk · Both past robots · Similar size |  DARwIn-OPROBOTIS (with Virginia Tech, University of Pennsylvania and Purdue University)Same job: research · Both walk · Both past robots · Similar size |  S-OneSCHAFT (acquired by Google)Same job: research · Both walk · Both past robots |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First shown | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2013-12-20 |
| Status | Retired | Retired | Discontinued | Retired |
| Height | 95 cm | 80 cm | 46 cm | — |
| Weight | 31.2 kg | — | 2.9 kg | — |
| Joints | 25 | 26 | 20 | — |
| Speed | — | — | 0.9 km/h | — |
| Payload | — | — | — | — |
| Battery | — | — | — | — |
| Price | — | — | $12,000 | — |
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
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