University of Tehran (Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies, formerly Center for Advanced Vehicles) · research humanoid
Surena 4
Fourth-generation Iranian research biped that climbs stairs and ramps, grasps objects with force control, copies full-body poses and can write its name; also used at public events to draw students into engineering.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- 170 cmTaller than 59%
- Weight
- 68 kgHeavier than 58%
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- 0.7 km/hFaster than 2%
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
A research humanoid from University of Tehran, Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST).
Real-world use
No customers or deployments reported yet.
Maker
University of Tehran (Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies, formerly Center for Advanced Vehicles)University lab · founded 1934 · Tehran, IranIranian public bodies: R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines (Surena I), IDRO (Surena III), Presidential Deputy for Science and Technology…
How it stacks up
Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Surena 4 is taller than 59% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Surena 4 is heavier than 58% of the 277 other humanoids that publish a weight. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Surena 4 is faster than 2% of the 122 other humanoids that publish a speed. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Surena 4 has more joints than 77% of the 236 other humanoids that publish a joints. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: payload, battery, price.
What it has been shown doing
2 of 14 skills we track, each from a public video or report. Demos can be staged or remote-controlled; we say so when the source does.
- Use toolsdrills through a wall with a power drill in the unveiling video · Feb 2020 · inverse.com
- Climb stairsreported to climb stairs (citing IEEE Spectrum) · Feb 2020 · intellinews.com
Not shown yet:SortAssembleFoldKitchenFineTerrainGet upRunJumpCarryOn siteAutonomous
Public attention
How much public attention Surena 4 gets, from open data.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- 2 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 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Walks on legs · 43 joints
- Actuators & motors
- 21 custom actuators (harmonic drives, frameless flat high-torque motors, incremental and absolute encoders) plus 10 mini and 12 micro servo actuators; 43 DoF (head 3, arms 7x2, hands 6x2, waist 2, legs 6x2).
- Hands
- Two hands with 6 DoF each; force-controlled grip, shown holding a water bottle and a pen to write its name and, per IEEE Spectrum, able to handle delicate items and power tools.
- Sensors & vision
- Stereo cameras; 6-axis force/torque sensors in the ankles; custom force/contact sensors in the soles; IMU, gyroscope and accelerometers; joint encoders and current sensors; microphone.
- Compute
- Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz CPU, NVIDIA GTX 1060 6 GB GPU, FPGA boards and microcontrollers; control loop raised to 200 Hz with the FPGA.
- Battery & power
- Two 22.2 V 10,000 mAh lithium-polymer packs; about 30 minutes of operation.
- Materials & build
- AZ91 magnesium alloy, aluminium and carbon-fibre core structure with topology-optimised parts; SLA 3D-printed outer shell.
- AI & software
- Ubuntu Linux, ROS, C++/Python control applications; simulated in Gazebo, Choreonoid and MATLAB; whole-body controller for push recovery; face/object detection and tracking, skeleton imitation, speech-to-text and text-to-speech; code published on the CAST-Robotics GitHub.
- Other details
- About 1.7 m and 68 kg, lighter than Surena III (98 kg); walks at 0.7 km/h, up from 0.3 km/h. Built by more than 50 researchers at CAST led by Prof. Aghil Yousefi-Koma over about four years (IEEE Spectrum, 2020).
Named suppliers:NVIDIAROS (Open Robotics)IntelHarmonic Drive
Lineage
Every University of Tehran, Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST) humanoid in order.
Watch Surena 4
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
- Built
- 1 (research prototype)
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Where it is sold or used
- Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST), University of Tehran, Iran
News
The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- IEEE Spectrum details Iran's Surena IV
IEEE Spectrum reported the new adult-size biped's stereo vision, extra hand DoF and faster walking after footage of its late-2019 unveiling emerged.
IEEE Spectrum - Surena IV
The fourth-generation Surena was unveiled on 14 December 2019 with upper- and lower-body motions, interaction with a host and speech.
University of Tehran, Center of Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST)
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
| Measure |  Surena 4University of Tehran, Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (CAST) |  ARTEMISRoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory), UCLASame job: entertainment · Both walk · Both research platforms |
|---|---|---|
| First shown | 2019-12-14 | 2023-03 |
| Status | Research | Research |
| Height | 170 cm | 142 cm |
| Weight | 68 kg | 38.6 kg |
| Joints | 43 | 20 |
| Speed | 0.7 km/h | 7.6 km/h |
| Payload | — | — |
| Battery | — | — |
| Price | — | — |
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
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