Kuavo Humanoid SDK

A comprehensive Python SDK for controlling Kuavo humanoid robots. This SDK provides interfaces for robot state management, arm and head control, and end-effector operations. It is designed to work with ROS (Robot Operating System) environments.

Warning: This SDK currently only supports ROS1. ROS2 support is not available.

Warning: This SDK can only be used on the onboard NUC computer located in the robot's torso.

Features

• Robot State Management

  • IMU data (acceleration, angular velocity, euler angles)
  • Joint/motor states (position, velocity, torque)
  • Torso state (position, orientation, velocity)
  • Odometry information
  • End-effector states:
    • Gripper(lejuclaw): position, velocity, torque, grasp status
    • Dexterous hand(qiangnao): position, velocity, torque
    • Touch Dexterous hand(qiangnao_touch): position, velocity, torque, touch state
    • End-effector position and orientation
  • Motion states: stand, walk, step_control, trot

• Motion Control

  • Arm Control
    • Joint position control
    • End-effector 6D control via inverse kinematics
    • Forward kinematics (FK) for computing end-effector pose
    • Keyframe sequence control for complex motions
  • End-effector Control
    • Gripper control (position control with configurable velocity and torque)
    • Dexterous hand control
      • Position control
      • Pre-defined hand gestures (OK, 666, fist, etc.)
  • Head Control
    • Position control
  • Torso Control
    • Height control (squatting)
    • Forward/backward tilt control
  • Dynamic Motion Control
    • Stance
    • Trot
    • Walking (xy and yaw velocity control)
    • Stepping (gait switching)

• Robot Basic Information

  • Robot type (kuavo)
  • Robot version
  • End-effector type
  • Joint names
  • Total degrees of freedom (28)
  • Arm degrees of freedom (7 per arm)
  • Head degrees of freedom (2)
  • Leg degrees of freedom (12)

Installation

Note: There are currently two versions of this SDK, the stable version and the beta version. Their differences are:

• stable version: corresponding to the functionality provided by the master branch of kuavo-ros-opensource.
• Beta version: This version is more aggressive than the official version and also provides richer functionality, corresponding to the functionality provided by the beta branch of kuavo-ros-opensource.

Friendly reminder: Please be clear about which version you need to install. If your SDK version does not match kuavo-ros-opensource, some features may not be available.

Install the latest ​stable version of Kuavo Humanoid SDK using pip:

pip install kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws

Install the latest ​beta version of Kuavo Humanoid SDK using pip:

pip install --pre kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws

For local development installation (editable mode), use:

cd src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk_ws  
chmod +x install.sh  
./install.sh   

Upgrade Instructions

Before upgrading, you can check the currently installed version with:

pip show kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws
# Output:  
Name: kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws  
Version: 0.1.2  
...  

Note: If the version number contains the letter b, it indicates a beta version, e.g., Version: 0.1.2b113

To upgrade from a stable version to the latest stable version:

pip install --upgrade kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws

To upgrade from a beta version to the latest stable version:

pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws
# or  
pip uninstall kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws && pip install kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws

To upgrade from a stable/beta version to the latest beta version:

pip install --upgrade --pre kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws

Package Information

You can check the package information using pip:

pip show kuavo-humanoid-sdk-ws

Quick Start

Here's a simple example to get started with Kuavo Humanoid SDK:

Warning: Before running any code, make sure to start the robot first by executing either:

• For simulation: roslaunch humanoid_controllers load_kuavo_mujoco_sim.launch (Example command)
• For real robot: roslaunch humanoid_controllers load_kuavo_real.launch (Example command)

# Copyright (c) 2025 Leju Robotics. Licensed under the MIT License.
import time
from kuavo_humanoid_sdk import KuavoSDK, KuavoRobot

def main():
    if not KuavoSDK().Init():  # Init! !!! IMPORTANT !!!
        print("Init KuavoSDK failed, exit!")
        exit(1)
    robot = KuavoRobot()    

    """ arm reset """
    print("Switching to arm reset mode...")
    robot.arm_reset()

    """ stance """
    print("Switching to stance mode...")
    robot.stance()

    """ trot """
    print("Switching to trot mode...")
    robot.trot()

    """ walk forward """
    print("Starting forward walk...")
    duration = 4.0  # seconds
    speed = 0.3     # m/s
    start_time = time.time()
    while (time.time() - start_time < duration):
        robot.walk(linear_x=speed, linear_y=0.0, angular_z=0.0)
        time.sleep(0.1)  # Small sleep to prevent busy loop

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Docs

The documentation is available in two formats:

• HTML format: docs/html, needs to be generated by running the script
• Markdown format: docs/markdown

We recommend that you generate the documentation locally by running the documentation script. The documentation will be output to the docs/html and docs/markdown folders:

cd <kuavo-ros-opensource>/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk_ws
chmod +x gen_docs.sh
./gen_docs.sh

We recommend that you view the documentation using html for a better experience.

For Markdown documentation at:

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/docs/markdown/index.md

Examples

WARNING

Before running any code examples, make sure to start the robot first by executing either:

• For simulation: roslaunch humanoid_controllers load_kuavo_mujoco_sim.launch (Example command)
• For real robot: roslaunch humanoid_controllers load_kuavo_real.launch (Example command)

Robot Info

Examples showing how to get basic robot information.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/robot_info_example.py

Basic Robot Control

A basic example showing how to initialize the SDK and control the robot’s movement.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/motion_example.py

End Effector Control

LejuClaw Gripper

Examples demonstrating how to control the LejuClaw gripper end effector, including position, velocity and torque control.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/lejuclaw_example.py

QiangNao DexHand

Examples showing how to control the QiangNao DexHand, a dexterous robotic hand with multiple degrees of freedom for complex manipulation tasks.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/dexhand_example.py

Arm Control

Examples showing arm trajectory control and target pose control.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/ctrl_arm_example.py

Forward and Inverse Kinematics

Examples demonstrating how to use forward kinematics (FK) to compute end-effector positions from joint angles, and inverse kinematics (IK) to calculate joint angles needed to achieve desired end-effector poses.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/arm_ik_example.py

Head Control

Examples showing how to control the robot’s head movements, including nodding (pitch) and shaking (yaw) motions.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/ctrl_head_example.py

Step-by-Step Control

Examples showing how to control the robot’s movements step by step, including individual foot placement and trajectory control.

https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/tree/master/src/kuavo_humanoid_sdk/examples/step_control_example.py

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contact & Support

For any questions, support, or bug reports, please contact:

• Email: edu@lejurobot.com
• Website: https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/
• Source Code: https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/
• Issue Tracker: https://gitee.com/leju-robot/kuavo-ros-opensource/issues