In 2001, Dr Robot began what would become its longest-running research project: develop a dynamically walking bipedal robot that would cost no more than a PC. Seven generations of robot prototypes have followed and the technology developed for the HR Project has found its way into many other robots since. Moreover, HR’s patented DURAS architecture has become the standard platform for all Dr Robot’s mobile designs.

HR7 is the culmination of four years of bipedal motion research and offers some fundamental improvements over its predecessor. Original market plans for HR6 were postponed in the interest of introducing a true dynamic gait to the robot as well as refining the robot’s appearance and functional forms. In addition to unifying the exterior materials, we gave HR7 five fingers to replace the pincer grips that all previous HR robots had. More notably, HR7 uses a new recharging technology that keeps charging time under 5 minutes for standard use (2 to 4 hours operation). HR7’s sense of balance is vastly better than that that of HR6, but, like HR6, if it trips and falls, it gets back up again.