Humanoid & robot atlas
Valkyrie (R5)
Photo: NASA/Bill Stafford, James Blair, Regan Geeseman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Background removed by Simbeing
ResearchUnited States

NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · research humanoid

Valkyrie

R5

A 6 ft 2 in, roughly 300 lb battery-powered humanoid with 44 degrees of freedom, series-elastic actuators and a soft protective shell. It scored no points at the 2013 DRC Trials because of communications problems and did not compete in the finals.

Price
—Not published
Height
188 cmTaller than 95%
Weight
136 kgHeavier than 91%
Payload
—Not published
Speed
—Not published
Battery
—Not published
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Why it matters

NASA's first walking humanoid, built for the DARPA Robotics Challenge and later used as a testbed for robots that could precede astronauts to Mars.

Real-world use

NASA lent Valkyrie units to university labs (for example UMass Lowell and MIT, 2016) for space-robotics research.

Timeline

First shown
2013-12
Released
Not yet
NASA JSC unveiling ahead of the DRC Trials (IEEE Spectrum exclusive)

Maker

NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space CenterGovernment lab · founded 1961 · Houston, United States

US federal government (NASA)

How it stacks up

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

  1. Agile JustinGerman Aerospace Center (DLR) · 2012191 cm
  2. Valkyrie (R5)NASA Johnson Space Center · 2013188 cm
  3. Atlas (DRC hydraulic Atlas)Boston Dynamics (for DARPA) · 2013188 cm
  4. TOROGerman Aerospace Center (DLR) · 2013174 cm
  5. REEM-CPAL Robotics · 2013165 cm
  6. Diego-sanUC San Diego Machine Perception Lab with Kokoro and Hanson Robotics · 2013130 cm
  7. RoboyUniversity of Zurich AI Lab · 2013130 cm
  8. KiroboToyota, Dentsu, University of Tokyo RCAST and Robo Garage · 201334 cm

Valkyrie (R5) is taller than 95% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.

Height 188 cm 34 cm213 cm #15 of 306 · taller than 95%

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

What it has been shown doing

1 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.

  • Climb stairsDemostair climbing, valve turning and grasping implemented on the physical Valkyrie for Space Robotics Challenge tasks · Jun 2019 · ieeexplore.ieee.org

Not shown yet:SortAssembleFoldKitchenToolsFineTerrainGet upRunJumpCarryOn siteAutonomous

Public attention

How much public attention Valkyrie (R5) gets, from open data.

  • 1,185 views of its Wikipedia article in the last 90 days (Valkyrie (robot))
  • 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 · 44 joints
Actuators & motors
Series-elastic rotary actuators in the arms, legs and torso, two linear actuators in the arms and six finger/thumb actuators; 44 degrees of freedom (neck 3, arms 4 each, wrists 3 each, hands 4 each, torso 3, legs 6 each, ankles 2 each).
Hands
Three fingers and a thumb per hand, 4 degrees of freedom each, driven by six finger and thumb actuators.
Sensors & vision
Carnegie Robotics MultiSense SL in the head, extra head cameras, torso and shin cameras, lidars in the knees and six-axis force-torque sensors in the feet.
Compute
Two Intel Core i7 processors on board (NASA, 2015).
Battery & power
1.8 kWh custom dual-voltage battery; about one hour of operation (NASA, 2015).
Materials & build
Foam padding covered in soft fabric over the structure.
AI & software
Robot Operating System (ROS); a simulated Valkyrie was used for NASA's Space Robotics Challenge.
Other details
Designed and built in about nine months for the DARPA Robotics Challenge; 1.87-1.90 m and 125-129 kg depending on source.

Named suppliers:ROS (Open Robotics)IntelCarnegie Robotics

Lineage

Every NASA Johnson Space Center humanoid in order.

  1. Robonaut 1Robonaut 11997Retired
  2. Robonaut 2 (R2)Robonaut 2 (R2)2010Retired
  3. Valkyrie (R5)Valkyrie (R5)2013Research

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
Never sold; units loaned to research groups (NASA)
Where it is sold or used
United States and United Kingdom
Customers and pilots
MIT; Northeastern University with UMass Lowell; University of Edinburgh (2016 loans)

News

The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.

  1. NASA JSC unveils Valkyrie

    NASA revealed a completely new humanoid for the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

    Robohub
  2. What Happened to NASA's Valkyrie Robot at the DRC Trials, and What's Next

    Valkyrie scored no points at the December 2013 DRC Trials after a network traffic-shaping tool blocked operator-to-robot data.

    IEEE Spectrum

Sources

Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.

NASA R5 (Valkyrie) fact sheet Space.com Meet Valkyrie: NASA's Superhero-Like Walking Robot Unmasked Robohub NASA JSC unveils Valkyrie DRC robot (IEEE Spectrum repost) UMass Lowell 'Valkyrie' to Undergo Testing at the University's NERVE Center NASA R5

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