Unitree G1
Bipedal humanoid robot by Unitree Robotics, designed as a compact research, development, and developer platform.
Applications
- Research
- Home Assistance
**ROS 2 Iron Irwini** is the eighth stable ROS 2 distribution, released on May 23, 2023 by Open Robotics. It is a **non-LTS release** with an 18-month support cycle (EOL: November 2024), positioned as a transitional release between the Humble (Ubuntu 22.04) and Jazzy (Ubuntu 24.04) LTSes. Iron experimented with new mechanisms that only stabilized in Jazzy.
**Key innovations**: (1) **Type Adaptation API** in `rclcpp` (REP-2007) — allows publishing/subscribing to custom user types with automatic conversion to ROS messages, without explicit serialization. (2) **Loaned Messages** — zero-copy publication through shared-memory middleware (Iceoryx, FastDDS SHM). (3) **Improved Intra-Process Communication** — elimination of copies in pipelines with multiple nodes in a single process (Component Container). (4) **`rcl_logging_spdlog`** as the default — more efficient than the older `rcl_logging_log4cxx`. (5) **`launch_pytest`** — native pytest integration for end-to-end launch file tests.
**Platform**: Ubuntu 22.04 (Tier 1), Windows 10/11, RHEL 9, macOS (Tier 3). Default DDS: **Fast DDS** (eProsima); alternatives: Cyclone DDS (Eclipse), Connext DDS (RTI), GurumDDS. Architecture support: amd64, arm64 (including Jetson AGX Orin), armhf (Raspberry Pi 4 32-bit).
**Lifecycle**: Initial release: May 23, 2023, regular patches until **EOL November 30, 2024**. After EOL: Iron is archived — no security patches, no bug fixes. Migration path: Iron → Jazzy (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, support until May 2029). Iron remains in use in research labs and prototypes started during 2023-2024.
**Ecosystem status**: ~60% of community projects published in 2023-2024 have an Iron branch (besides Humble). Most maintainers have moved on to Jazzy in 2024-2025.
Middleware is a software layer that mediates between applications, services, sensors, drivers, and execution layers. In robotics, middleware is typically responsible for inter-process communication, message passing, hardware abstraction, and module integration within a single system. The most widely used robotics middleware is ROS (Robot Operating System), which provides a publish-subscribe message bus, service calls, and a rich ecosystem of packages.
A Runtime is the environment or execution layer used to run code, load libraries, manage dependencies, and operate applications or services — either in real time or during normal system operation. In robotics this includes real-time operating system (RTOS) runtimes, ROS 2 executor runtimes, containerised execution environments (Docker, podman), and embedded C++ runtimes on microcontrollers.
An SDK (Software Development Kit) is a curated set of libraries, interfaces, tools, sample code, and documentation intended for building applications and integrating with a specific hardware device, platform, or service. In robotics, an SDK typically exposes device control, telemetry, sensor access, configuration, and execution functions, significantly reducing the time-to-first-integration for developers targeting a specific robot or platform.
An API Library is a software package that exposes programmatic interfaces for communicating with a device, service, or system. In robotics it typically forms a lightweight integration layer built on top of the manufacturer's official API or an open-source project, abstracting low-level protocol details and providing language-native bindings (Python, C++, Java, etc.).
A Developer Tool is software designed to support the development workflow, including configuration, debugging, testing, monitoring, validation, and integration of robotic and embedded systems. Examples include IDE plugins, visual debuggers, log analysers, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test harnesses, and code-generation utilities specific to robotics platforms.
Iron was used in **NASA VIPER lunar rover prototypes** (2023-2024, before the migration to Jazzy). Toyota Research Institute used Iron for autonomous shuttle pilots (Plano, TX). The Open Source Robotics Foundation released a refreshed Nav2 stack on Iron as a baseline for the Mobile Robot Challenge 2023. Many manufacturers (Clearpath Husky, Robotnik RB-Vogui) had dedicated Iron metapackages between 2023 and Q3 2024. After EOL, most users migrated to Jazzy (from 2024) or LTS Humble.
At peak (Q1 2024), ROS 2 Iron had ~15,000 active installations reported by `rosversion`. ROS Index indexed ~3,200 community packages on Iron. After EOL (November 2024), the number of active installations dropped to <2,000 by Q1 2026. ROS Discourse 'iron-irwini' tag: ~850 threads.
Bipedal humanoid robot by Unitree Robotics, designed as a compact research, development, and developer platform.
Unitree H1 is a full-size general-purpose humanoid robot (~180 cm, ~47 kg). Bipedal, 5 DOF per leg + 4 DOF per arm, 3.3 m/s walking speed, 360° perception via 3D LiDAR + depth camera, Unitree M107 PMSM joint motors with ~360 N·m peak knee torque. Standard compute: Intel Core i5/i7; optional NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX.
Figure 03 is the third-generation humanoid robot from Figure AI, designed for Helix, home environments, and scalable mass production.
General-purpose humanoid robot developed by Tesla since 2021 (Tesla Bot). About 173 cm tall, 57 kg, 20 kg payload. Generation 3 hands have 22 degrees of freedom. Controlled by an AI system derived from Tesla FSD.
Boston Dynamics bipedal humanoid robot. The fully electric generation unveiled in 2024 succeeds the hydraulic Atlas that was retired after more than a decade of research.
Compact, high-dynamics bipedal humanoid by MagicLab. 140 cm, 40 kg, 24–50 DOF, walking speed up to 2.5 m/s. Unveiled on 8 July 2025 with martial arts and acrobatic demos.
Installation: `sudo apt install ros-iron-desktop` (Ubuntu 22.04) or Docker image `osrf/ros:iron-desktop`. Full desktop installation takes ~12 GB; minimal ros-base ~2 GB. EOL distro — new installations not recommended, use Humble (LTS) or Jazzy (LTS).
License family: Permissive
End of support — distro moved to archived status. Repositories still available, but no new patches.
Last patch before EOL — security fixes (CVE-2024-32487 in log4cxx fallback), final stability fixes.
Fixes in Fast DDS shared-memory transport, Nav2 dependency updates, ros2cli refinements.
Bugfixes in rclcpp, intra-process communication race fixes, improvements in `ros2 launch`.
First stable version — Type Adaptation API, Loaned Messages, rcl_logging_spdlog default.
