One of the robots presented at the recent 2010 International
Conference on Humanoid Robots was MARI-3 (pictured), built at
Yokohama National University’s Kawamura Lab back in 2006. It’s a
lower-body bipedal robot built out of aluminum alloy that is
capable of walking and jumping up to 4cm on one leg. It weighs
38kg (83 lbs), has 13 degrees of freedom (2 legs x6, with 1 yaw
axis at the waist), and uses a gyro sensor, accelerometer, and
six-axis force/torque sensors. MARI-1, the lab’s first biped,
was built in 2000. It was 120cm (4′) tall and weighed 25kg (55
lbs) with 14 degrees of freedom (2 legs x6, 2 arms x1). It was
able to walk at a rate of 1.4~2km per second. Its successor
MARI-2 followed in 2003. It was 130cm (4’3″) tall and weighed
70kg (154 lbs) with 12 degrees of freedom (2 legs x6). It had
stereo CCD cameras in its head, allowing it to visually track
objects and avoid obstacles. You can see photos and video of
both robots in action after the break. Video (MARI-3 walking and
jumping): [source: Kawamu