The Honda humanoid robot: development and future perspective

Honda revealed a humanoid robot with two legs and two arms in December of 1996. The robot walks not only forward and backward but also diagonally either to the right or left and turns in any direction as well. The robot can also steadily walk up and down a staircase without missing a step and push a cart with coordinated movement of its legs and arms. This robot with its innovative posture stability control can keep its balance against such unexpected disturbances as irregularities and unevenness on the floor surface. The paper introduces an outline of the structure and joints of the robot along with the development history. The basic principle of the robot’s posture recovery control is also briefly explained.