Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on the kit. Kit 00 and Kit 01 are rated “steep” learning curve — you should be comfortable with CAN bus debugging, motor parameter tuning, and inverse kinematics calibration. Kit 02 assumes familiarity with ROS 2, Python control stacks, and some CAD modification. Kit 03 is rated “expert” — EtherCAT configuration, deterministic control loop tuning, foundation model deployment, and safety case development. It assumes a multi-person team.

None of these are weekend projects. The entry kits (00 and 01) are estimated at 2-6 months of part-time work. The pro kit is 6-12 months with a full-time team. We publish the entire build process publicly so you can see exactly what you're getting into before ordering a single part.

Every part in every kit BOM has a verified supplier URL — you can click through and see the listing. That said, we do notcurrently verify live stock levels. A supplier URL existing doesn't mean the part is in stock today.

Live stock checking is planned for V2 of the compiler. For now, treat the supplier URLs as starting points: verify availability, lead times, and shipping costs directly with each supplier before committing to a build.

We're building in public. There is no formal support team, no ticketing system, and no SLA. What you get is:

• The full public build journal — every mistake, every fix, every performance benchmark
• Community discussion (we're setting up channels — check back soon)
• The compiler itself, which validates your BOM before you spend money

This is community-first, not enterprise support. If you need guaranteed response times and dedicated engineering help, that's the future Supply Chain Advisory product.

Not yet. We're working on institutional purchasing workflows including PO-based invoicing, tax-exempt documentation, and bulk pricing. This is coming soon.

In the meantime, if you're a university lab or corporate R&D group that needs formal documentation, email us at huma@aubrains.com and we'll work something out manually.

We don't ship anything ourselves. HUMA provides the BOM, the compiler validation, and the build documentation. You source parts directly from individual suppliers — CubeMars ships from China, Robotis (Dynamixel) from South Korea, NVIDIA from wherever your regional distributor is, and so on.

This means international shipping is between you and each supplier. Factor in customs duties, import taxes, and variable lead times when planning your build. The BOM cost does not include shipping.

Googling gives you individual datasheets. The HUMA Robot Compiler validates compatibility across 9 dimensions simultaneously:

1. Electrical — voltage bus matching, peak power budget
2. Communication — bus protocol compatibility across all actuators
3. Mechanical — torque sufficiency for mass at lever arm
4. Mass budget — total weight vs. target class + payload
5. Software — compute TOPS vs. AI capability tier
6. Thermal — heat generation vs. frame dissipation capacity
7. Runtime — battery Wh vs. average power draw
8. DOF — actuator count vs. target degrees of freedom
9. Availability — every part has a verified supplier

You can't check all 9 at once by reading datasheets. The compiler catches the subtle failures — like a 48V battery paired with a 24V actuator, or a carbon fiber frame that can't dissipate the heat from your chosen motor set. It's a type-checker for physical robot builds.

No. And that's the point.

We're learning in public. The compiler validates BOMs on paper — electrical, mechanical, thermal, software, and availability checks all pass. But we haven't yet turned a wrench on any of these kits. V2 will include actual build results, failure modes, and real-world performance benchmarks.

We think this honesty is worth more than a polished pitch from someone who pretends to have all the answers. The build journal will be published as we go, mistakes and all.

We've written detailed comparisons:

• HUMA vs Asimov → — different philosophies on actuator selection, thermal management, and the role of the compiler
• HUMA vs K-Scale → — open-source approaches, hardware marketplaces, and how we think about community

The short version: HUMA focuses on supply chain intelligence and BOM validation. We're not building a single robot — we're building the toolkit that helps you build any humanoid robot, from any combination of real, purchasable parts.