KUAVO-MY by Leju vs Kaleido 8.0 by Kawasaki

KUAVO-MY and Kaleido 8.0 are both bipeds, but Kaleido is much bigger and heavier. Kaleido 8.0 stands 180 cm and weighs 80 to 86 kg, with direct-drive motors in its waist and elbows for durability. KUAVO-MY is 166 cm and 55 kg, with 22 degrees of freedom, or 28 on the exhibition version with a moving head and dexterous hands. Kaleido 8.0 is built to take punishment, while KUAVO-MY is light enough to move and set up easily in a lab or exhibition hall.

Both walk on two legs. KUAVO-MY walks at 0.4 m/s, runs at up to 5 km/h and builds its maps with a 3D LiDAR and a depth camera. Kaleido 8.0 walks at about 4 km/h and is built to survive falls and stand back up. KUAVO-MY has the published mapping setup, while Kaleido 8.0 is designed for rough ground where falls are likely.

KUAVO-MY carries an Orbbec Gemini 335L depth camera, a Livox Mid-360 3D LiDAR, an IMU, a six-microphone array that locates sounds in 360° and temperature sensors in its joints. Kawasaki has not published a sensor list for Kaleido 8.0. KUAVO-MY is therefore the easier robot to evaluate and build on. Ask Kawasaki for Kaleido 8.0's perception details if vision matters to your project.

KUAVO-MY learns tasks by imitation from recorded demonstrations and answers questions through a large-model Q&A system, with AI running on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX. Kaleido 8.0 is semi-autonomous and uses a head projector to show facial expressions while working with people. KUAVO-MY has the more detailed published AI. Kaleido 8.0's projected face is meant to make its intentions clear to people nearby.

KUAVO-MY gets about an hour of walking from its 60 V, 6 Ah battery, which recharges in 1.5 hours or less. Kawasaki has not published Kaleido 8.0's battery details. KUAVO-MY's hour suits research sessions and demonstrations. Ask Kawasaki for Kaleido 8.0's runtime before planning any longer trial.

KUAVO-MY is Leju's platform for research labs, exhibition and shopping guidance, education and industrial trials. Kawasaki builds Kaleido for disaster response and heavy work alongside people, and version 8 demonstrated tasks on a stage set up as an evacuation centre at iREX 2023. Both are development platforms, but for very different environments. Choose KUAVO-MY for research, demonstrations and guided tours, or Kaleido 8.0 for rugged disaster-response and heavy-duty research.

KUAVO-MY is built on Leju's open, ROS-based kuavo-ros-control stack for secondary development, and this edition runs the OpenHarmony-based KaihongOS. Kawasaki has not published SDK details for Kaleido 8.0. KUAVO-MY is the clear choice for developers who want to change control code. Kaleido 8.0 is shown at exhibitions rather than sold generally, so access would be arranged with Kawasaki directly.

KUAVO-MY's safety features are an emergency stop on its body, a low-battery alarm and joint temperature monitoring. Kaleido 8.0 is designed to fall without damage and get back up, the main goal of Kawasaki's Robust Humanoid Platform. KUAVO-MY's features protect the robot and its operators during normal use. Kaleido 8.0's toughness is aimed at surviving accidents in hazardous settings.