PAL Robotics REEM-C

REEM-C is a biped research humanoid from Spain's PAL Robotics, announced in 2013 as the company's first commercial walking robot. For years it served universities and labs studying walking, grasping, navigation and whole-body control; PAL now lists it among its legacy robots.

History and launch

PAL Robotics started in 2004 with REEM-A, a humanoid that walked and played chess, followed by REEM-B and then the wheeled REEM-H, the company's first commercial product, used as a guide and receptionist in malls, museums and airports.

REEM-C was announced in July 2013 as PAL's first biped for sale, aimed mainly at researchers. PAL's website now files it under "Legacy Robots" as the first humanoid that paved the way for later designs such as TALOS.

Design and hardware

PAL's current page lists 165 cm, 80 kg, 1 kg of payload with the arm stretched, walking at up to 2.5 km/h, and about 3 hours of walking or 6 hours of standby. Force-torque sensors sit in the ankles and wrists.

Launch-era figures differ: 2013 coverage cited 44 degrees of freedom and 70 kg, whereas PAL now lists 68 DoF and 80 kg. A 2014 announcement also claimed it could lift and carry up to 10 kg, while the spec sheet gives 1 kg at full arm extension. At launch it carried two Intel i7 computers, force-torque sensors and range finders in the feet, stereo cameras and four microphones, with an optional depth camera on the head.

REEM-C can climb stairs and sit on a chair, and PAL has demonstrated it balancing on one leg and recovering balance with a step.

Software and AI

The robot runs Linux (Ubuntu) and is fully ROS-based. Out of the box it walks, grasps, speaks (text to speech in over 30 languages) and uses whole-body control, and PAL sold extra packages for whole-body control, navigation, interaction skills and teleoperation. A simulation model is public on the ROS wiki, and development is mostly in C++ and Python.

Applications and deployments

REEM-C was a research platform for universities and labs working on locomotion, grasping, navigation, whole-body control and human-robot interaction, with education and entertainment as secondary uses. PAL does not publish a list of buyers.

Price and availability

PAL never published a list price. The robot now appears among its legacy products; the company's current biped research platforms are TALOS and Kangaroo.

Timeline

• 2004 Work begins on the REEM-A humanoid
• 2013-07 REEM-C announced as PAL's first commercial biped
• 2017-03 PAL launches its successor research humanoid, TALOS

Sources

1. REEM-C, PAL Robotics (2025)
2. REEM-C: a full size humanoid robot you can buy, I Programmer (2013-07-06)
3. PAL Robotics launches humanoid biped robot REEM-C, euRobotics (2014-05-25)
4. TALOS humanoid now available from PAL Robotics, IEEE Spectrum (2017-03-07)

Updated: 2026-10-10

Compared with the catalogue

• At 165 cm the PAL Robotics REEM-C is taller than 30% of the humanoids in the catalogue (median: 170 cm).
• It has 44 degrees of freedom against a catalogue median of 28; more degrees of freedom usually means finer arm and hand movement.
• Its weight of 80 kg (catalogue median: 65 kg) matters for transport and for working around people.
• It is one of 4 PAL Robotics models in the catalogue and one of 4 humanoids from Spain.

Capabilities