The Stack Overflow Podcast Open source for awkward robots
Mar 13, 2026
Jan Liphardt, CEO and co-founder of OpenMind and builder of humanoid robotics software, discusses an open-source robot OS that uses natural-language logic. He covers encoding Asimov-style rules on blockchain, a supervising "mother" model for robot behavior, app-store style skills, hardware standards like brain packs, and social impacts such as regulation and caregiving.
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Public Walk With A Humanoid Sparked Blockchain Safety Idea
- Jan described walking a humanoid in public where kids and dogs ran up to it, prompting safety questions from onlookers.
- He said he reassured people because the robot's software was open source and Asimov's laws were written to Ethereum as immutable guardrails.
Robots Use Natural Language For Internal Model Communication
- OM1 uses natural language as the internal communication layer: vision, battery, and inertial subsystems emit sentences that are fused into paragraphs for LLMs to decide actions.
- This makes it straightforward to add natural-language guardrails and inspect which subsystems said what.
A Supervising Coach Model Monitors Robot Behavior
- OM1 includes a supervising LLM called the "mother" that observes interactions and periodically offers corrective coaching.
- Jan gave examples like prompting the humanoid to stand straighter or adjust phrasing when the human looks bored.