Athlete Robot

Athlete Robot is a humanoid robot developed by Ryuma Niiyama at the ISI Lab of Tokyo University, Japan. This athletic humanoid was created with a special pair of legs that are unlike the rigid legs of other humanoid robots. The Japanese developers’ primary goal was to enable Athlete Robot to run like an actual human. It stands 125 centimeters tall and weighs 10 kilograms.

Instead of the usual mechanical joints of other humanoid robots, Athlete Robot has prosthetic blades that are patterned to work more like human muscles. The upper legs of the robot use compressed air while the elastic prosthetic blades serve as lower leg ligaments. This Japanese robot is capable of jumping 50 centimeters into the air and landing gently and easily. Developers also discovered that they can predict the robot’s point of landing based on the stiffness of its joints. 

Features: 

• Flexible legs patterned closely to the muscle and tendon systems of an actual human’s lower extremities
• Elastic blades that enable the robot to jump as high as 50 centimeters
• Compressed air that enables running and jumping
• Efficient posture control with a bipedal stance using PID control for both joints
• Sensor feedback control vital to the control of landing and bouncing