Bandit

A robot with a torso, two arms with gripper hands, and a smiling face, attached to a frame base.
Despite its name, Bandit is a good guy. Photo: Luke Fisher

Bandit is a friendly, socially assistive humanoid robot. It's been used to help children with autism, motivate older adults in physical exercise, and provide therapies to stroke patients.

Creators

USC Interaction Lab and BlueSky Robotics

Year
2006
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Categories
Features
Demo of Bandit's capabilities. Video: USC Interaction Lab

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Did you know?

There are six copies of Bandit, named Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, Calamity Jane, and Belle Starr.

Side view of a robot whose torso is attached to a basic frame base that sits on a wheeled red robot.
Bandit goes for a ride on a Pioneer mobile robot. Photo: Luke Fisher
Close up of a robot gesturing to the space it is in.
Bandit welcomes you to his lab. Photo: Brian Morri

History

The goal of the Bandit project was developing a humanoid robot for research in socially assistive robotics, including interaction with children and adults in school, home, office, and hospital settings. Led by Maja Mataric, a team at the Interaction Lab at University of Southern California in Los Angeles and BlueSky Robotics designed a robot that is safe, expressive, and affordable. Bandit uses joint friction to hold the arms in a desired pose and a small amount of power to move to new poses. This limits its manipulation skills but lets it gesture and interact safely with people. Its relatively small size means users are not intimidated, and its face is simple, so it is easy to relate to and understand. The first prototype was created in 2004; the researchers designed an improved version in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 and 2008 they built six copies of the new design, which are the robots they use in their studies today.

Three people sit around the robot.
Deep thoughts for Bandit and the team. Photo: Brian Morri
A humanoid robot wears a red hoodie labelled USC.
Bandit shows off his school spirit. Photo: Luke Fisher

Specs

Overview

Capable of exhibiting a wide range of social gestures and facial expressions. Torso can be paired with a wheeled base for mobility.

Status

Ongoing

Year

2006

Website
Width
18 cm
Height
56 cm
Length
40.6 cm
Weight
7.7 kg
Sensors

Head with two Firewire cameras (eyes). Microsoft Kinect and custom IMUs (depending on use).

Actuators

12 DC motors, seven servos.

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
19 (Arm: 7 DoF x 2; Head: 5 DoF)
Materials

Plastic, aluminum, PCB.

Compute

Intel Core 2 Duo mini PC

Software

64-bit Ubuntu OS, ROS (Robot Operating System), custom control software.

Power

12-V 6-A power supply

Cost
$15,000