LeRobot v0.5.0: Scaling Every Dimension

With over 200 merged PRs and over 50 new contributors since v0.4.0, LeRobot v0.5.0 is our biggest release yet — expanding in every direction at once. More robots (including our first humanoid), more policies (including the comeback of autoregressive VLAs), faster datasets, simulation environments you can load straight from the Hub, and a modernized codebase running on Python 3.12 and Transformers v5. Whether you're training policies in simulation or deploying them on real hardware, v0.5.0 has something for you.

LeRobot v0.5.0 adds full Unitree G1 humanoid support (whole-body control models), new policies –including Pi0-FAST autoregressive VLAs and Real-Time Chunking for responsive inference–, and streaming video encoding that eliminates wait times between recording episodes. The release also introduces EnvHub for loading simulation environments from the Hugging Face Hub, NVIDIA IsaacLab-Arena integration, and a major codebase modernization with Python 3.12+, Transformers v5, and third-party policy plugins.

LeRobot v0.5.0 dramatically expands the roster of supported hardware — from arms and mobile robots to a full humanoid.

We've integrated NVIDIA IsaacLab-Arena , bringing GPU-accelerated simulation to LeRobot. IsaacLab-Arena provides a collection of manipulation tasks running on NVIDIA's Isaac Sim, offering massively parallel environment instances for fast reinforcement learning. The integration includes dedicated pre/post-processing steps and full compatibility with LeRobot's training pipeline. Check out the documentation .

This is a game-changer for real-world deployment where latency matters. Read the original paper for the technical details and our documentation .

The biggest hardware addition in this release: full Unitree G1 humanoid support . This is LeRobot's first humanoid integration, and it's comprehensive:

We've added support for the OpenArm robot and its companion OpenArm Mini teleoperator. OpenArm is a capable robot arm with full LeRobot integration, and the Mini serves as its natural teleoperation device. Both support bi-manual configurations , enabling dual-arm setups for more complex manipulation tasks. Check it out in the documentation .

New motor controller support via CAN (Controller Area Network) bus opens the door to higher-performance actuators:

The G1 integration represents a major step toward general-purpose robotics within LeRobot — moving beyond tabletop arms into full-body embodied AI. Try it out yourself by following the documentation .

These additions mean LeRobot can now drive a wider variety of professional-grade actuators beyond the existing Dynamixel and Feetech ecosystem.

This release brings six new policies and techniques into LeRobot, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with open-source robot learning.