SigmaBan

What it's for

SigmaBan is a kid-size humanoid built by the Rhoban Football Club team at Bordeaux INP and the University of Bordeaux for RoboCup competitions. The robot is 70 cm tall, weighs 7.5 kg and has 20 degrees of freedom (DOF) driven by Dynamixel MX-64 and MX-106 servos. Perception comes from a camera, foot pressure sensors and an IMU, and computing is handled by an Intel NUC mini-computer (i5, Debian) with an STM32 microcontroller for real-time tasks such as gait stabilization. It is a setup familiar to anyone who has learned to control a bipedal robot. Uses: first of all, competition: with this platform the team has won the RoboCup KidSize world title five times, most recently in 2023, together with the award for the tournament's best humanoid. Second, research into gait, balance and real-time vision. Third, as a benchmark for student teams that want to build their own kid-size robot. In a school or university, SigmaBan shows how far an open mechanical and electronic design can go: the team developed part of the project itself instead of buying a ready-made commercial platform. This robot is not suited to a factory, a construction site or a home: it has no payload capacity, no certifications and no commercial offer.

Who it's for

Yes: Polish science clubs and RoboCup teams looking for a model to follow and wanting to draw on the project's open philosophy. Yes: robotics lecturers who need a living example of integrating servos, an IMU and vision in a small humanoid. Yes: students preparing an engineering project on bipedal walking.

No: anyone who simply wants to buy a robot; SigmaBan is a research and education project with no commercial sales and will not be offered in Poland. No: companies looking for service support; the team builds for its own needs and provides no manufacturer care. No: primary schools that only need a kit for learning programming basics; we recommend educational robots. For most teachers a better lead will be ROBOTIS OP3 or NAO, which can actually be bought.

Deployments

SigmaBan is not sold and does not work for Polish clients. It is the competition and research platform of the Bordeaux team, and its "deployment" is successive RoboCup tournaments. There are Polish traces in the category, though: educational humanoids such as the ROBOTIS OP3 are available in the country, and universities and science clubs use them in teaching. Look at universities and schools to see where robots are learning in Poland.

ROBOTIS OP3 is an open humanoid for research and education (51 cm, 20 DOF), on sale since 2018 and available in Poland through generationrobots.com. The same number of degrees of freedom, but with a real purchase channel.

NAO is an education classic: 58 cm, 25 DOF, about 20,000 units sold; note the uncertain future of the maker after Aldebaran's insolvency.

Booster K1 is a compact educational humanoid (95 cm, 19.5 kg) for about USD 12,500: larger and cheaper than the T1, one step from competition.

Booster T1 is the RoboCup 2025 AdultSize champion platform (118 cm, 23 DOF, up to 5 m/s), for about USD 33,949. For teams that want to buy ready-made hardware for competition.

SigmaBan grew out of Rhoban Football Club, a team from Bordeaux INP and the University of Bordeaux that builds robots for RoboCup. The key fact on file: a five-time world champion title in the KidSize category, most recently in 2023, along with the award for the tournament's best humanoid. There is also a newer variant, SigmaBan+, which according to 2024 specification documentation weighs 5.5 kg (2 kg less than the base version). We do not have the exact date of the first presentation or detailed generations, so we do not quote one from memory. The broader background on the development of small humanoids is in “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work”, and you can find the team itself in the profile Rhoban Football Club.