We're building humanoid robots from scratch at UT Austin. Open-source hardware, real engineering, no shortcuts.
Texas Humanoids is an undergraduate robotics organization at UT Austin dedicated to designing and building functional humanoid robots from the ground up. We give students hands-on experience with the full robotics design cycle — mechanical design, electrical systems, embedded software, controls, manufacturing, testing, and integration.
UT Austin has some of the best robotics talent in the country. But there was no student organization where undergrads could take on something this ambitious: a full-stack humanoid, designed, built, and tested by students. We started Texas Humanoids to change that.
The humanoid robotics market is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2040. Startups are moving past pure AI and into physical systems. These companies need engineers who can get things built — reliably, at scale, with testing and iteration baked in. That's what we train for.
We're running two parallel builds: an open-source humanoid developed in-house, and a custom research robot with UT's Living with Robots Lab.
Our flagship project: an open-source humanoid robot capable of autonomous movement. We're developing custom actuators, control software, and simulation infrastructure from scratch during a 12-week sprint this fall.
The work is scrappy by design — fast build-test-break cycles, frequent subsystem reviews, and hands-on debugging with one goal: get a real humanoid walking. Members use motion capture to determine joint requirements and configurations, building toward a platform that any research lab or organization can own, control, and extend.
A custom bipedal humanoid robot built in partnership with Dr. Justin Hart and UT Austin's Living with Robots Lab. BevoBot is designed to be a well-engineered, open-source platform optimized for common human tasks and gestures.
This is the long-term build. Phase 2 (Spring '27) takes our finished requirements and turns them into Bevo Bot's full hardware and software architecture through an industry-style design process — subsystem reviews, PDR, CDR, and mentorship from engineers at Tesla and other robotics companies. Phase 3 (Summer & Fall '27) is manufacture, assembly, integration, and field testing.
Although robotics has historically been reserved for PhDs and engineers with decades of experience, startups are moving past AI and into physical systems. These companies need talent that specializes in getting things built, reliably, at scale. Undergraduates now have the opportunity to meaningfully contribute — the knowledge is out there, in papers and courses anyone can access. There's a shortage of opportunity to put that knowledge to work.
Even at a school like UT Austin, the opportunities to work on a system as complex as a humanoid robot are extremely limited. Research labs often can't give undergrads the space to take a project from zero to one. That's the gap we fill.
Built by students who have been building, breaking, and designing robots since middle school.
Designing the mechanisms and machinery of our robot. Complex structural simulations, dynamic torque sizing, joints, arms, and outer body of the humanoid. Extensive testing and characterization of robotics mechanisms.
Embedded systems, communication buses, custom motor drivers, firmware, and in-house PCB design. Working with STM-32 boards, Jetson Nanos, and TI-C200 for low-latency, high-bandwidth, responsive systems.
The robot's brain. Teleoperation frameworks, kinematic controllers, reinforcement learning for walking and tool use, VLA models, and perception systems. Works closely with electrical and mechanical to inform designs.
Engineers who've shipped at Tesla Optimus, Sandia Labs, SpaceX, and Gradient Robotics. Our ops team brings business and technology experience focused on making socially impactful technology.
Guided by world-class researchers in controls, autonomy, and humanoid robotics.
Research spans optimal control, dynamic game theory, learning for control, and robot safety. Affiliated with Texas Robotics, the Oden Institute, and the Center for Autonomy.
Doctorate from UC Berkeley, postdoc at Stanford. Recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and NSF CAREER Award.
Leads the Human Centered Robotics Laboratory. Focus on control, embodiment, and intelligence of humanoid robots, exoskeletons, and autonomous systems.
UT Austin Lead for DARPA's Robotics Challenge with NASA JSC. Founding member and innovation advisor for Apptronik Systems. Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford.
Your partnership helps us purchase components, manufacture custom hardware, develop testing infrastructure, and give students real engineering experience.
| Benefits | Longhorn $1,000+ |
Bev0 $3,000+ |
Futures $10,000+ |
Foundations $25,000+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website & Socials | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| General Meeting Host | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Talent Connect | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Logo on Merch | Name | Name | Logo | Premier |
| Logo on Robot | Name | Logo | Premier | |
| TH Networking Event | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Promo Campaign | ✓ |
Texas Humanoids is building at the intersection of frontier technology and one of the strongest robotics programs in the country.
Your support changes the future — both the technology we build and the engineers we develop.
