US Naval Research Laboratory · research humanoid
Octavia
MDS robot
A social humanoid on a two-wheel self-balancing base with an expressive face and dexterous hands, used by the Navy lab to study how robots can read and respond to people.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- —Not published
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
A retired humanoid from US Naval Research Laboratory.
Real-world use
US Navy research
Timeline
- First shown
- 2009
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
US Naval Research LaboratoryGovernment lab · founded 1923 · Washington, D.C., United StatesGovernment lab; about $1.1 billion a year, recovered from sponsor-funded projects (Navy Working Capital Fund).
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 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Wheeled base
- Actuators & motors
- DC motors (count not stated); 45 DoF: 20 in the head, 7 per hand, 4 per arm, 1 torso, 2 wheels.
- Hands
- Dexterous hands with 7 DoF each; optional fingertip pressure sensors.
- Sensors & vision
- Two video cameras in the eyes, a 3D active infrared/visible camera in the forehead, LIDAR in the base; optional 3D passive infrared camera and microphone array.
- Compute
- PC/104 computer for body and base control; Intel PC for sensing.
- Battery & power
- 36 V lead-acid battery plus two lithium-ion batteries for the drive; about 2 hours of operation.
- Materials & build
- Machined aluminium and plastic.
- AI & software
- Linux and Windows; custom control and sensing software; ACT-R/E cognitive architecture.
- Other details
- Two-wheel self-balancing base; expressive face used to show its partner what it is thinking. Trained for human-robot firefighting teams using a compressed-air-foam fire cannon.
From the maker
Octavia (MDS robot) is the only humanoid from US Naval Research Laboratory in the atlas.
Watch Octavia (MDS robot)
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
- Where it is sold or used
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC (robot platform)
- Customers and pilots
- US Navy research
News
The latest 1, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- Navy trains Octavia to fight fires with people
At IROS 2012 NRL researchers showed Octavia tracking a human partner, reading speech and gestures, and aiming a foam fire cannon.
IEEE Spectrum
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
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