Simulation Environments

Prototype behaviors, train AI policies, and validate control algorithms before touching hardware. These are the definitive simulators for humanoid robotics in 2026.

ROS 2 Integration & Tooling

Most commercially-deployed humanoids — Unitree G1/H1, Digit, Apollo — support or expose ROS2 interfaces for sensing, actuation, and navigation pipelines.

# Install ROS 2 Jazzy Jalisco on Ubuntu 24.04 (current LTS)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ros-jazzy-desktop

# Source the environment
source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

# Create a workspace and add your humanoid package
mkdir -p ~/ros2_ws/src && cd ~/ros2_ws/src
# git clone your humanoid package here
cd ~/ros2_ws
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

# Launch your simulation
ros2 launch <your_package> gazebo.launch.py

# Or use Humble (still supported, Ubuntu 22.04)
sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop

• ROS 2 Jazzy Jalisco — Official Docs Current LTS release (May 2024–May 2029), targeting Ubuntu 24.04. ROS 2 Humble (Ubuntu 22.04, supported until May 2027) remains widely used across humanoid platforms.
  ROS2 Python C++
• Isaac Sim — ROS2 Bridge DDS-based bridge (FastRTPS / CycloneDDS) enabling bidirectional ROS2 ↔ Isaac Sim communication via the isaacsim.ros2.bridge extension. Required for sim-to-real workflows.
  Isaac Sim ROS2

Open-Source Humanoid Projects

Fork, study, and build upon these. Great for research, education, and bootstrapping hardware or AI stacks without a $90K platform budget.

• Berkeley Humanoid Lite Sub-$5,000 3D-printable humanoid with 22 cycloidal gearbox actuators. Includes sim2real locomotion policies (trained in Isaac Lab) and full teleop code. One of the most complete open hardware humanoid projects available.
  Isaac Lab Python ROS2
• Awesome Robotics Projects Curated list of open-source robots including Reachy 2 (Pollen Robotics' open humanoid), low-cost arms, and community builds.
  Curated List
• Awesome Humanoid Robot Learning Papers and code covering loco-manipulation, whole-body control, and dexterous hand policies — most with real-robot experiments and reproducible results.
  Python MuJoCo / Isaac
• Open X-Humanoid Toolchain Training pipeline adapting the TienKung humanoid robot and the RoboMIND dataset to the LeRobot framework, converting HDF5 data to LeRobotDataset V2.1 format. From the Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics.
  Python LeRobot

Manufacturer SDKs & APIs

Direct interfaces to real hardware — where publicly available. Unitree leads the field for developer accessibility; most others are enterprise-gated.

• Unitree (G1 / H1) The most developer-friendly SDK in the industry. Full ROS2, Python, and C++ support with Isaac Sim and MuJoCo integration. Includes locomotion APIs and whole-body control interfaces. The Unitree Robotics Developer Platform (world's first humanoid robot App Store) launched in public beta in December 2025, allowing users to upload, download, and share motion actions and training datasets for the G1.
  ROS2 Python C++ Isaac / MuJoCo
• Figure AI (Figure 02 / 03) Enterprise-focused. No public SDK currently. Community reverse-engineering and unofficial interfaces are shared on GitHub. Requires direct partnership agreement with Figure AI.
  Enterprise Only
• Agility Robotics — Digit No public developer SDK. Agility Arc is a cloud-based fleet management and operations platform — it manages workflows and task assignments, but is not a developer control interface. Community ROS2 interfaces (e.g. via Agility's JSON API) exist on GitHub from research pilots. Direct hardware access requires an enterprise agreement with Agility Robotics.
  Arc Fleet Mgmt Enterprise Only
• Apptronik — Apollo Compute: NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin + Jetson Orin NX (275+ TOPS). Leverages NVIDIA GR00T foundation models and Isaac Lab for robot learning. No public developer SDK confirmed. Contact Apptronik directly for pilot program access.
  Isaac Lab No Public SDK