What "Open Source Humanoid" Actually Means in Practice

The term gets used loosely — it's worth knowing what's actually open before assuming full transparency.

An 'open source humanoid' project typically makes some combination of its hardware designs, software, and/or AI models publicly available, but the term covers a wide range of actual openness — from fully open mechanical CAD files to just an open software stack running on proprietary hardware.

Questions worth asking

Is the mechanical design (CAD, bill of materials) actually open, or just the control software? Are the AI models' weights released, or just a paper describing the approach without reproducible code? Is the license genuinely permissive, or restricted to non-commercial or research use only?

Why it matters

Genuinely open projects have meaningfully lowered the barrier to entry for robotics research and hobbyist development, but 'open source' claims deserve the same specificity check as any other technical claim — the practical usefulness of an open project depends heavily on exactly what was actually released.