iCub is an open source platform for research into humanoid robotics, brain and cognitive sciences, that has been adopted by more than 30 laboratories worldwide. It has the shape of a human child with hands for manipulating objects and likewise sensors for seeing, hearing and touching. The robot was designed in such a way to facilitate natural interaction with people, and more in general with the environment, to learn from the fellow humans what and how to do things.

iCub is an international project on humanoid robotics developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – IIT in Genoa (Italy) in cooperation with leading institutions in Europe and funded in part by the European Commission Cognitive Systems and Robotics program.

Besides IIT in Genoa, the iCub partners are University of Genoa, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, University of Ferrara, the company Telerobot in Genoa, University of Uppsala, University of Sheffield, University of Hertfordshire, IST in Lisbon, EPFL in Lausanne, University of Zurich, the CNR in Rome, INSERM in Lyon, UPMC in Paris, the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, the University of Bielefeld, the University of Plymouth, Imperial College in London, Aberystwyth University, the Beckman Institute Urbana-Champaign, the METU in Ankara, Technische Universität München, IDSIA in Lugano, the University of Osaka, Gipsa Lab in Grenoble, KAIST in Daejeon, the University of Heidelberg and Twente.