Aalborg University with ATR, Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab and Kokoro · research humanoid
Geminoid DK
A seated lifelike android copy of Danish professor Henrik Scharfe, who operated it remotely as a stand-in for studies of how people react to android surrogates. Height is in sitting posture.
- Price
- —Not sold. Build cost given as about $165,000 with control equipment or about $200,000 (IEEE Spectrum, 2011).
- Height
- 130 cmTaller than 19%
- Weight
- 40 kgHeavier than 24%
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
First Geminoid modelled on a non-Japanese person.
Real-world use
Aalborg University (Henrik Schärfe's research group)
Timeline
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
Aalborg University with ATR, Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab and KokoroUniversity lab · founded 1974 · Aalborg, Denmarkpublic university (total budget about DKK 3.09 billion in 2021)
How it stacks up
Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Geminoid DK is taller than 19% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Geminoid DK is heavier than 24% of the 277 other humanoids that publish a weight. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Geminoid DK has more joints than 1% 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.
What it has been shown doing
We checked public videos and press for Geminoid DK and found no clear demo of the skills we track yet.
Public attention
How much public attention Geminoid DK 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
- Stationary · 12 joints
- Actuators & motors
- Pneumatic actuators in the face (eyes, forehead, eyebrows, eyelids, cheeks) and body (neck, shoulder); 12 DoF in total.
- Hands
- Silicone-skinned, lifelike hands; no actuated hand joints are listed.
- Sensors & vision
- No on-board sensors listed. External cameras and microphones placed beside the android feed the teleoperation setup, and a motion-capture system tracks the operator's face and head movements.
- Compute
- Custom server and control infrastructure.
- Battery & power
- Mains-powered from a standard 110 V/220 V supply (tethered).
- Materials & build
- Metal skeleton, silicone skin on the face and hands, and a wig of human and artificial hair. The beard was implanted by hand and trimmed. Built by Kokoro in Tokyo.
- AI & software
- Windows with a Java-based control application. Mostly teleoperated by its human model; idle behaviours such as breathing and blinking run on their own.
- Other details
- First Geminoid copied from a non-Japanese person and the first with a beard. Research questions included whether an android can carry a person's presence to a remote place and whether cultures differ in how they accept such robots.
Named suppliers:Kokoro
From the maker
Geminoid DK is the only humanoid from Aalborg University with ATR, Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab and Kokoro in the atlas.
Watch Geminoid DK
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not publishedNot sold. Build cost given as about $165,000 with control equipment or about $200,000 (IEEE Spectrum, 2011).
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- 1 (one-off)
- Sold or delivered
- not sold; cost given as about $165,000 including control equipment or about $200,000 (IEEE Spectrum, 2011)
- Where it is sold or used
- Built by Kokoro in Tokyo, set up and tested at ATR in Nara, then shipped to Aalborg University, Denmark
- Customers and pilots
- Aalborg University (Henrik Schärfe's research group)
News
The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- Henrik Scharfe — CV
Henrik Schärfe, known for the Geminoid-DK project, was a TIME100 honoree in 2012.
Henrik Scharfe - First look at a Danish professor's android double
IEEE Spectrum showed the new Geminoid being set up at ATR in Japan before shipping to a new lab in Denmark.
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
| Measure | Geminoid DKAalborg University with ATR, Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab and Kokoro |  InMoovInMoov (Gael Langevin)Same job: research · Both fixed in place · Both research platforms |
|---|---|---|
| First shown | 2011-03 | 2012-01 |
| Status | Research | Research |
| Height | 130 cm | — |
| Weight | 40 kg | — |
| Joints | 12 | — |
| Speed | — | — |
| Payload | — | — |
| Battery | — | — |
| Price | — | $1,500 |
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
Photos and logos only identify each robot and its maker. Simbeing is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsing any company, and nothing here is advertising. Figures are for statistics only and are not advice of any kind. Terms of use