Kenshiro musculoskeletal humanoid Yuto Nakanishi and colleagues
at the University of Tokyo‘s JSK Laboratory have unveiled
Kenshiro, a full-sized humanoid robot built with bones,
ligaments, and pulley-style muscles modeled closely after human
anatomy. The robot features 160 actuators: 50 in the legs, 76 in
the trunk, 12 in the shoulder, and 22 in the neck. Weight,
torque, and joint speeds are all as close as they could get to
human, though the joints are quite a bit on the slow side; we
don’t yet have actuators that can match the size, speed, and
weight of real muscle. But Kenshiro gets about as close as it is
possible to get with current technology. See Kenshiro (sometimes
in parts) demonstrating its moves in the video below. Other
humanoid robots often have problems with weight distribution and
balance. Looking for inspiration in our own bodies, which have
been finely tuned by millions of years of evolution, certainly
makes sense to me.