Kenshiro is a human-like musculoskeletal robot developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo. Kenshiro is a bio-inspired robot. The robot is named after the Japanese fictional character, Kenshiro, featured in Fist of the North Star, is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and drawn by Tetsuo Hara.
Kenshiro’s underlying structure is closer to a human’s form. It mimics the body of the average 50Kg weighed and 158 cm tall 12-year-old male. Kenshiro’s body reflects almost all the major muscles in a human body. It has 160 pulley-like muscles: 50 in the legs, 76 in the trunk, 12 in the shoulder, and 22 in the neck. It has more muscles than any other bio-inspired humanoid developed so far. It has the same weight ratio and the same amount of joint torque of a human. That is, the robot strikes the balance between weight, power and speed. It has 100 cables and motors as well.
Kenshiro’s has aluminum bones including the sturdy impressive rib cage. Its knee-joints include imitations of cruciate ligaments and a floating patella. Though it is struggling to do some movements still it is closer to human quality of motion. The ultimate aim of these kind of robots is to build a robot that moves and acts like human being. The simulate muscles, bones and spine help to achieve this aim.
