Booster Robotics T1
The Booster T1 is a lightweight developer and research humanoid from Booster Robotics, best known as the RoboCup 2025 AdultSize champion platform. It stands about 118 cm, weighs around 30 kg, and runs on an NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin, with a full API and ROS2 support. US pricing starts from $29,800, rising to around $50,925 for a standard build with grippers. It's a research tool, not a home robot.
What is the Booster Robotics T1?
If you follow robot soccer at all, you already know the Booster T1. In July 2025 Tsinghua University's Hephaestus team used it to win the RoboCup AdultSize championship in Brazil, the first time a Chinese team took that top title, and that pedigree is a big part of the T1's appeal.
But RoboCup is really just the showcase. The T1 is fundamentally a developer platform: open, well-documented, and built so university labs and companies can prototype bipedal locomotion, embodied AI and human-robot interaction on real hardware.
This page covers what the T1 is, what it costs in 2026, the sometimes-confusing degrees-of-freedom options, and whether it makes sense for your team versus cheaper or pricier rivals.
What is the Booster T1?
The Booster T1 is a lightweight, high-performance humanoid robot aimed at developers and researchers. It stands about 118 cm tall and weighs roughly 30 kg, which keeps it portable enough for a lab bench and a competition arena alike.
The headline for engineers is openness. The T1 ships with a complete API, ROS2 compatibility, and simulation and AI tooling, so you can go from sim to real hardware without fighting a closed black box. Booster describes it as an open platform, and that's a real reason teams pick it.
Computing muscle comes from an NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin rated at up to 200 TOPS, paired with a 14-core Intel i7-class processor, plenty for running perception, control and learned policies on-board.
How much does the Booster T1 cost?
US pricing starts from $29,800 for the Basic configuration and goes up to about $50,925 for a Standard build fitted with grippers. Some resellers list the T1 around $33,949, so the exact figure you see will depend on the vendor and the exact spec.
That puts the T1 in a middle tier of the humanoid market, well above ultra-cheap platforms like the Unitree R1 (which starts under $5,000), but far below expressive or industrial humanoids that run into six figures.
What you're paying for is a competition-proven, developer-ready platform with strong compute and an open software stack, not a consumer product. Budget for that context.
How many degrees of freedom does the T1 have?
This trips people up, so here's the clean version. The standard T1 configuration has 23 degrees of freedom. Add grippers and it expands to 31 DOF, and swap in dexterous hands and it reaches 41 DOF.
That modularity matters because your research goals dictate the hand hardware. Doing locomotion and balance work, the base 23-DOF setup is plenty. Doing manipulation research, you'll want the gripper or dexterous-hand options, which is also where the price climbs toward that upper $50,925 figure.
So when you compare quotes, always check which DOF configuration and which hands are included, otherwise you're comparing apples to a different, more expensive apple.
Why the RoboCup win matters
The T1 is the championship-proven platform that won RoboCup 2025 AdultSize and also figured in IEEE-RAS Humanoids 2024 competition. For a research buyer, that's more than bragging rights.
RoboCup humanoid soccer is genuinely hard: real-time vision, decision-making, whole-body control and strategy, all on a robot that has to stay upright while other robots crash into it. A platform that survives and wins that is a platform that's mechanically resilient and well supported.
Booster says the T1 is used by over 50 global robotics teams and research institutions, which also means a community, shared code and a track record you can lean on when things break at 2am before a deadline.
Booster T1 vs Unitree R1 vs Booster K1
Against the Unitree R1, the choice is mostly budget versus depth. The R1 starts under $5,000 and is a superb entry point, but its cheapest editions can't even be freely programmed. The T1 costs several times more, yet gives you a fully open, competition-grade research platform out of the gate.
Booster also makes the smaller K1, a RoboCup-oriented humanoid launched around $5,000, which is a more affordable way into Booster's ecosystem for teams that don't need the T1's full size and compute.
So: R1 for the tightest budgets, K1 for affordable Booster-family robot soccer, and T1 when you want the AdultSize champion hardware with serious onboard AI. Each fits a different lab.
Is the Booster T1 worth it, and who's it for?
The T1 is squarely for universities, robotics research groups, embodied-AI teams and competition squads. If that's you, it's a strong pick, open, proven, and well-supported, and the RoboCup pedigree lowers the risk of betting a research program on it.
It is not a consumer or home robot, and nobody should buy it expecting chores or companionship. It's a tool for building and testing robotics and AI, full stop.
If your work is bipedal locomotion, manipulation research, HRI or robot soccer, and $30k–$51k fits your grant, the T1 earns its place. For pure hobby budgets, look at the R1 or K1 instead.
Who the Booster T1 is — and isn't — for
+Where it shines
- You can actually buy or reserve it as an individual, at a consumer price.
- Open developer access (SDK/API) — good for builders and labs.
- Stated real-world payload (~0.5 kg per arm).
- Specs are well-sourced — high data confidence.
!Watch-outs
- Some demos rely on teleoperation, not full autonomy.
How the Booster T1 stacks up
Side by side with similar robots — the one you're reading about is highlighted.
| This robot Booster Robotics Booster T1 |  Unitree Robotics Unitree R1 |  Unitree Robotics Unitree G1 |  Unitree Robotics Unitree H1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (US) | $29,800 – $50,925 | $4,900 – $5,900 | $13,500 – $73,900 | ~$90,000 |
| Availability | On the market | On the market | On the market | On the market |
| Height | 1.18 m | 1.23 m | 1.32 m standing | ~1.80 m |
| Payload | ~0.5 kg per arm | Unknown | Arm ~2 kg | Not rated for H1 |
| DoF | 23 | 20 | 23 | ~19 |
| Buyer | Individuals | Individuals | Individuals | Enterprise |
| Made in | China | China | China | China |
What the Booster T1 costs — and how to get one
US : from $29,800 (Basic) up to $50,925 (Standard w/grippers).
Sold via Booster Robotics + authorized distributors (K-Robotics, Generation Robots) w/ intl shipping
Leasing / RaaS: unknown
Every spec, grouped & sourced
Tap a group to expand. Values are labelled official vs third-party; unknowns are omitted, not guessed.
Body & movement▾
Power & endurance▾
Hands & senses▾
Brains & control▾
Claims vs evidence
Onboard NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 32GB (~200 TOPS) + Intel i7-1370P (Standard); edge AI/LLM, RL locomotion, sim (Isaac Sim/MuJoCo/Webots)
Where it's working
Won RoboCup 2025 AdultSize (Tsinghua 'Hephaestus'); 40+ teams at 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games; 50+ global teams/institutes
Intended use cases: Robotics research, embodied AI, bipedal locomotion research, RoboCup soccer, education, HRI, developer platform
Should you consider the Booster T1?
The Booster T1 is one of the most credible developer humanoids you can buy, an open, RoboCup-winning platform with real onboard compute. At $29,800 to about $50,925 it's an investment aimed at labs and competition teams, so it's excellent for research and wrong for anyone hoping for a home robot.
Score reflects stated criteria (availability, data confidence, US relevance) — not hands-on testing or user ratings. We're an independent review & comparison site; we don't sell robots. *Financing figure is illustrative.
How we know this
Data confidence 82/100 · last verified 2026-06-23. Specs are labelled official vs third-party and dated; unknowns are omitted, not guessed.
Booster T1 — your questions, answered in full
How much does the Booster T1 cost?+
US pricing starts from $29,800 for the Basic version and goes up to about $50,925 for a Standard build with grippers. Some resellers list it around $33,949 depending on configuration.
Who makes the Booster T1?+
It's made by Booster Robotics, which also produces the smaller K1 humanoid. Both target developers, researchers and competition teams.
Did the Booster T1 win RoboCup?+
Yes. It was the platform behind the RoboCup 2025 AdultSize championship, won by Tsinghua University's Hephaestus team in Brazil, and it also featured in the IEEE-RAS Humanoids 2024 competition.
How many degrees of freedom does the Booster T1 have?+
The standard configuration has 23 DOF. It expands to 31 DOF with grippers and up to 41 DOF with dexterous hands, so it depends on which hand hardware you order.
What computer runs the Booster T1?+
It uses an NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin rated up to 200 TOPS, paired with a 14-core Intel i7-class processor, which is enough to run perception and control policies on-board.
Is the Booster T1 open source or programmable?+
It's built as an open developer platform with a complete API and ROS2 compatibility, plus simulation and AI tooling, which is a major reason research teams choose it.
Booster T1 or Unitree R1, which should I buy?+
The Unitree R1 is far cheaper (from $4,900) and great for entry-level use, but its base models aren't freely programmable. The T1 costs more but is a fully open, competition-proven research platform. Pick based on budget and how much you need to develop.
Can the Booster T1 be used at home?+
No. It's a research and developer robot, not a consumer product. It's meant for labs, universities and competition teams doing robotics and AI work.
Peer-reviewed research on the Booster T1
Published academic work — peer-reviewed papers and preprints — involving this robot or its maker's systems, indexed in scholarly databases (OpenAlex, arXiv). Not blog posts or press write-ups.
- Booster Gym: An End-to-End Reinforcement Learning Framework for Humanoid Robot LocomotionYushi Wang, Penghui Chen, Xinyu Han et al. · 2025 · arXiv preprint
Academic references are factual citations from open scholarly indexes; listing is not endorsement.