ARTICLE

Journal
Name
International
Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired

Musculoskeletal Humanoids

Regular Paper

1, , Shigeki Ohta2 , Takuma Shirai3 , Yuki Asano4 , Toyotaka Kozuki5 ,

Yuto
InvitedNakanishi
Paper
Yuriko Kakehashi6 , Hironori Mizoguchi7 , Tomoko Kurotobi8 , Yotaro Motegi9 ,
Kazuhiro Sasabuchi10 , Junichi Urata11 , Kei Okada12 , Ikuo Mizuuchi13 and Masayuki
Inaba
14
AAAAAAAAA
Yuto Nakanishi1,*, Shigeki Ohta1, Takuma Shirai1, Yuki Asano1, Toyotaka Kozuki1,
1
1
1
Yuriko Kakehashi
, Hironori Mizoguchi
, Tomoko
Kurotobi
, Yotaro Motegi1,
of Mechano-Informatics,
The University
of Tokyo,
JAPAN
1
1
1
of Mechanical
systems Urata
Engineering,
University
Agriculture2 and
Kazuhiro Sasabuchi
, Junichi
, KeiTokyo
Okada
, IkuoofMizuuchi
andTechnology,
MasayukiJAPAN
Inaba1

1-12,14 Department
13 Department

Corresponding author E-mail: nakanish@jsk.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

1 Department of Mechano-Informatics, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Received
D M;
Acceptedsystems
D M Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
2 Department
of Mechanical
* Corresponding author E-mail: nakanish@jsk.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
DOI: 10.5772/chapter.doi
Accepted 07 Dec 2012
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DOI: 10.5772/55443
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
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Abstract In order to realize more natural and various

motions like humans, humanlike musculoskeletal
tendon-driven humanoids have been studied. Especially,
it is very challenging to design musculoskeletal body
structure which consists of complicated bones, redundant
powerful and flexible muscles, and large number of
distributed sensors. In addition, it is very challenging
to reveal humanlike intelligence to manage these
complicated musculoskeletal body structure. This paper
sums up life-sized musculoskeletal humanoids Kenta,
Kotaro, Kenzoh and Kenshiro which we have developed
so far, and describes key technologies to develop and
control these robots.
Keywords Musculo-Skeletal Humanoid, Bio-Inspired
Robotics, Body Design Methodology, Behavior Intelligence

1. Introduction
What should we study on as next robot researches? In this
case, a musculoskeletal robot represented by humanoids
is a good target when considering the frontier to which the
evolution of intelligent robot research. A musculoskeletal
humanoid is the robot which has following characteristics:
www.intechopen.com

It has fullbody flexibility based on its spine structure.

It has redundant muscles which can drive complicated
joint structure.
It can easily embed elastic elements for force control to
muscle itself.
It can easily embed stiffness adjustment elements to
muscle itself.
On the other hand, it is difficult to realize intelligence
to manage fullbody motion and behavior due to its
complexity of body structures and a large number of joint
DOFs and actuators to control. Such a research can be
valuable in evolving the development of new research on
humanoid intelligence. From the the experimental study
on theoretical structure of intelligence, we researchers
have to reveal human intelligence how to manage complex
musculoskeletal body with many bones, organs and
muscles which is covered by flexible skins like human
body. Needless to say, we human beings not only move
our musculoskeletal body, but also live in social daily
life by more high-dimensional intellectual behaviors, such
as recognizing environments, making tools, using them
dexterously and so on.
For musculoskeleltal humanoid researches, it is also
necessary not only to reveal such a musculoskeleltal

Yuto Nakanishi, Shigeki Ohta, Takuma Shirai, Yuki Asano, Toyotaka Kozuki,
Yuriko
Kakehashi,
Int J Adv
Robotic
Sy, 2013,Hironori
Vol. 10,Mizoguchi,
216:2013
Tomoko Kurotobi, Yotaro Motegi, Kazuhiro Sasabuchi, Junichi Urata, Kei Okada, Ikuo Mizuuchi and Masayuki Inaba:
Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired Musculoskeletal Humanoids

Figure 2. Example of a musculoskeletal humanoids motion using

its spine
Figure 1. Evolution of small humanoid fullbody action

intelligence but also to prepare how to use these

intelligence to our social life in near future. It is very
important to prepare basic intelligent robot research for
human daily assistant behaviors by using conventional
type humanoid with not musculoskeletal body.
To
promote musculoskeleltal humanoid researches, it is
also important to build developing environments which
can inherit results for common type of humanoids,
such as HRP2[1], PR2[2] and so on. We expect that
a musculoskeletal humanoid research becomes the
scholarship to learn human musculoskeletal structure and
function, the intelligent study how to manage its complex
body and the intelligent robot platform for life-assistive
humanoid research thanks to its body characteristics.
And also we hope this musculoskeletal research area
will evolve intelligent robot technology as the research
frontier.
Based on this vision, this paper describes
life-sized tendon-driven fullbody musculoskeletal
humanoid researches we have studied so far, from the
body design methodology to realization of fullbody
behavior.
2. Importance of humanoid flexibility in fullbody motion
Whole body behaviors are the behaviors where the robot
is easily subject to impact from whole body inertia and
contact with environments due to its fast and flexible
body motion. We developed small humanoid robots
whose brain computer, which is wirelessly connected
to the robot body, is outside of its body. As shown in
Figure 1, we conducted various behavior achievements
and evaluations by using these small robots[3]. Many
behaviors were achieved, such as locomotion with arms,
biped walking, carrying objects, swinging based on
sensing its body oscillation, iron bar motion, monkey
bars motion, walking and kicking, rolling-over, using a
mobile base, and so on[4]. These small humanoids weigh
light because its body consists of low stiffness and light
structures and it has no computer. Thanks to light weight
body, a physical damage or wire cable disconnection
rarely occur even in conflict with the environment. In
these robots, their rotary joints consist of multi-reduction
gear and motor modules. The gear structure takes impact
torque of its joint. It has the advantage that the joint
impact becomes small and indestructible due to the
compact and lightweight body.

Int J Adv Robotic Sy, 2013, Vol. 10, 216:2013

Kenta
Kotaro
Kojiro Kenzoh
Height[cm]
123
130
135
90
Weight[kg]
19
20(23)
45
35
PWR[W]
423 515.5(587.5) 3869
3900
PWR/Weight[W/kg] 22.2 25.8(25.5) 86.0
111.4
Number of muscles
95
91(107)
117
80
Neck
6
6
6
10
Spine 40
16
24
26
Arms 28
40
40
44
Legs 20
26(42)
44
0
Eyes
1
3
3
2
Number of joint DOFs 80
69
58
46
Neck 15
9
9
9
Spine 30
15
12
9
Arms 20
26
18
9
Legs 14
16
16
26
Eyes
1
3
3
2
Table 1. Specifications of tendon robots developed

However, the rolling over is difficult by the robot

which has a rigid trunk with broad shoulders. Rolling
over is the action which is need to bend and twist the
trunk. And also the motion shaking the whole body, such
as climbing a ladder or exercising an iron bar, requires
pliant trunk by flexible spine structures. In order to
use a mobile base, a robot needs to grab handles with
two hands, dynamically deal with closed-link structure
from arms to legs and strongly kick the ground by its
legs. This motion also requires whole body flexibility.
In sitting in a chair and picking a object on the ground,
redundant joint degree of freedoms are useful as shown in
Figure 2. In whole body behaviors, the robot body needs
flexibility which enables to absorb impacts by contact
with environments while shifting of the weight of the
body, and also mechanism which enables to achieve fast
and agile motion. From this standpoints, it is effective to
adopt musculoskeletal body structure, which can easily
implement a spine structure and flexible joint structures.
We expect that these musculoskeletal robot can evolve the
robotics researches to new stages, such as realization of
more humanlike dynamic fullbody behaviors.
3. Body design concept of musculoskeletal humanoids
This section describes the design concept of three life-sized
musculoskeletal humanoids which we have developed
so far. Figure 3 shows appearances, joint arrangements
and muscle arrangements of these robots. Table 1 shows
height, weight and number of muscles of each humanoid.

www.intechopen.com

Tendon path

Kenta
Motor
Height : 123cm
Weight: 19kg
Joint DOFs: 73
Muscle Num:94

Kenta(2000~)

Height : 130cm
Weight:
20kg
Joint DOFs: 63
Muscle Num: 108

Height : 135cm
Weight:
45kg
Joint DOFs: 58
Muscle Num: 109

Motor array unit

Kotaro(2005~) Kojiro(2008~)

Spherical
joint(3Dofs)
Rotational
joint(1Dof)

Kentas spine structure (back view)

Figure 4. Accumulation of fixed muscles

musculoskeletal humanoids since Kenta until Kenshiro(in

section5) by this SLS rapid prototyping.
In addition, Kenta has a neck structure with 5 articulated
cervical vertebrae driven by 6 tendons, and also its all
joints of its arms and legs are driven by tendons. This robot
is the first life-sized fully tendon-driven musculoskeletal
humanoid which was developed at our lablatory. On the
other hand, compared to its complex torso, its joint DOFs
arrangement and tendon arrangement are simplistically
implemented. Kenta has a lot of room for improvement
to achieve more humanlike structures.

Joint arrangements
Tendon path

3.2. Reinforceable musculoskeletal humanoid: Kotaro

Tendon arrangements
Figure 3. Joints and tendon arrangements of musculoskeletal
humanoids developed.

3.1. fully tendon-driven musculoskeletal humanoid with spine:

Kenta
We developed "Kenta"[5], which was developed to aim
implementation of more humanlike body structure based
on the former small humanoid "Cla" with spine joints[6].
The big characteristics of Kenta is a complicated trunk
structure with super multi-DOFs vartebrae, which consists
of 10 articulated 3 DOFs joint (i.e.
30 DOFs) and
a large number of redundant 40 muscles to drive its
vartebrae, as shown in Figure 4.
Kentas vartebra
not a simple ball-socket joint structure, but a complex
structure. It imitates a human vartebrae and has a
lock mechanism, which corresponds to human vartebra
projection for prevention of excessive movement. This
mechanism prevents its spine structure from bending at
the position of one vartebra. These joint structure with
complicated shape was newly made of molded plastic
resin by Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) method, which is a
kind of a rapid prototyping molding, not of conventional
engineering plastic or metal by cutting work. We have
implemented humanlike complex bone structures of our

We developed "Kotaro"[7], which was improved in the

joint DOFs arrangement and structures of its whole body,
compared with previous humanoid Kenta. The basic
actuation system of Kotaro is the same as one of Kenta,
which adopts tendon driven system with winding pulley
rotated by DC 4.5W motor. Inspite of less number
of spine joints (i.e. 5 articulated spherical joints) than
Kentas spine joints, Kotaro has a compound shoulder
structures consisting of a collarbone and a scapula. As
a result, it can humanlike upperbody natural movement
thanks to humanlike arm joint DOFs arrangement, such
as its shoulder[8]. In addition, Kotaro can easily add
and modify its tendon arrangements by its slim bone
structure and muscle modules with smooth round shapes
as shown in Figure 5. Thanks to this design approach,
we can test and search various tendon arranemgents of
Kotaro after the robot actual implementation. We call this
concpet "reinforceable musculoskeletal humaonid", which
was proposed in [9]. This concpet is important in order
to reduce(i.e. simplify) number of muscles for actual
implementation to realize humanlike musculoskeletal
humanoids. And also all bone parts of Kotaro are
made of nilon resin by rapid prototyping method(SLS),
which is used in Kentas spine structure. Kotaro enables
to implement more muscle actuators and more similar
tendon arrangements than Kenta, because we can freely
design more complex bone shapes thanks to using rapid
prototyping.
In the legs, Kotaro has as almost twice muscles as Kenta
and also Kotaro adopts a DC 20[W] motor1 as an actuator
of antigravity muscles, which needs more power than
1

www.intechopen.com

Kenta adopts a DC 4.5[W] motor

Yuto Nakanishi, Shigeki Ohta, Takuma Shirai, Yuki Asano, Toyotaka Kozuki, Yuriko Kakehashi, Hironori Mizoguchi,
Tomoko Kurotobi, Yotaro Motegi, Kazuhiro Sasabuchi, Junichi Urata, Kei Okada, Ikuo Mizuuchi and Masayuki Inaba:
Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired Musculoskeletal Humanoids

1.Decision of DOF

Pelvis bone

2.Decision of parts

3.Shape design

Outer shape

Sensor board

1DOF Muscle
DC Motor

Attachment pivot

Side

Pulley
Beam for strain gauge

Front

3DOF

Deal Drawing

Wire

Muscle Unit

4.Hollowing out the assenmbly areas

Assembly areas for parts

Section of frame

Thigh bone

Storing boards

Kojiro

Motor Driver

After hollowing out

Kotaro

Endoskeleton Structure

Meshed Hollow Skeleton

5.Building the tunnels for the cables

Figure 5. Reinforceable musculo-skeletal humanoid Kotaro

others. Thanks to this improvement of actuation power,

Kotaro can somehow keep standing[10], which Kenta
never can do. However, it is difficult to achieve behaviors
which needs enough legs power, such as standing up,
squwatting, walking and so on. And also in the arms,
Kotaro has a larger joint movable range than Kenta thanks
to compound shoulder mechanism, however, it cannot put
its hand up due to power lacking.

Cables

Final lower leg bone structure

Figure 6. Design method of Kojiros skeleton(a shank bone)

Joint Arrangement Cable Arrangement Parts Arrangement

And also Kojiro adopts newly spherical chest shoulder

joint mechanism[14], which enables to move smooth
scapula with less friction than a conventional scapula
structure. In addition, Kojiros wrist joint can absorb
impact shock when it hits a nail, by embedding a
variable joint stiffness mechanism. This mechanism is
implemented by putting nonlinear spring element in
antagonistic tendons around its wrist.

Lowerbody Overview

Robot Links

Thigh bone

3.3. Highpower musculoskeletal humaonid: Kojiro

We developed "Kojiro"[11], which has high-power
actuation system, in order to solve lacking of joint power
in the previous musculoskeleltal humanoid Kenta and
Kotaro. The actuation system can instantly generate high
power to the limitation of AC 40[W] motor based on
thermal control of motors inner coil[12]. Kojiro adopts
the new design method[13], which enables to embed
many actuators and achieve high mechanical strength as
shown in Figure 6. Thanks to this design approach, Kojiro
legs can embed 44 actuators2 , which is enough strong to
conduct fullbody motion such as walking. Figure 7 shows
Kojiros complex leg structure with many actuators and
control boards.

Tu
Tunnels

3DOF

786[mm]
Crus bone

1DOF

Foot(Upper)

3DOF

6axes force sensor

1DOF

Foot(Lower)

Actuator unit
Toe
DC/DC convertor

USB hub

Sensor board

Motor driver

Figure 7. The lower body arrangement of Kojiro

3.4. Musculoskeletal humanoid driven by mechanically

compliant tendons: Kenzoh
In order to let musculoskeletal humanoids do more
dynamic motions with some complex contact to
environments like sports, we developed musculoskeletal
humanoid "Kenzoh" (Figure 8) with mechanically
compliant joint.
Figure 8. Musculo-skeletal humanoid "Kenzoh"

Kotaro legs has 20 actuators.

Int J Adv Robotic Sy, 2013, Vol. 10, 216:2013

www.intechopen.com

Wire

Low stiffness

High stiffness

Rotation axis

Top VIew

Pulley
Wire(Tendon of muscle)

Spring
Spring

Figure 9. Mechanism of non-linear spring tension unit(NST)

1.Motor

2.Spring

3.Guide Pulley

2
2
1

4.Wire(Tendon)

5.Tension Sensor
(Loadcell)

6.Pulley

Figure 11. Rotary NST unit mechanism

6
40W Actuator Unit with NST

Motion system
90W Actuator Unit with NST

Original motion joint order

Motion generator

Robot body

org
Middle&Lower layer

Actuator
Inner sensor

Upper layer
Reference of
operational object

Body controller

Modified
joint order

mod

Actuator
Inner sensor

Robot model

Actuator Elements of Chest bone

Rnow

Information processing

Figure 10. Integration NST unit with actuator muscle system

One of most important Kenzoh characteristics is that

Kenzohs all muscles have NST units. In order to embed
more than 80 number of NST units within Kenzohs
limited body space, Kenzoh adopts two types of NST unit
developed by ourselves. One is the integration type with
actuator unit parts as shown in Figure 10. Advantage
of this NST unit is to utilize effectively motor shaft
space as spring and guided pulley of NST units, which
often becomes dead space in previous musculoskeletal
humanoids we developed. In Kenzoh, the integration NST
units are mainly used in a chest bone, bladebones and
upperarms, which have enough spaces. The other NST
is the rotary NST unit as shown in Figure 11. Advantage
of this NST unit is to put it anywhere through its tendon
path, which enables to widen freedom of robot design.
It is very useful at designing a complicated structures of
Kenzoh which has many elements. And also this rotary
NST unit can achieve higher stiffness than other NST
mechanisms[16]. In Kenzoh, the rotary NST units are
mainly used in a spine vertebrae, which have less spaces.
www.intechopen.com

Inner sensor

Sout

Outer sensor

Figure 12. Upper layer of motion controller for musculoskeletal

humanoids.
Motion controller
Upper layer
Modified
joint order

Lower layer

Middle layer

mod

Joint controller A
Middle layer
Joint-Muscle
Converter

lff + l mod

(feedforward controller)

Joint control
parameter

Cj

Robot model
+

Joint Feedback controller

-

Cjnow

Information processing

Joint controller B

Muscle group A

Robot body

Muscle controller

Actuator
Inner sensor

Muscle controller

Actuator
Inner sensor

lfb

Muscle group B

Sin

Inner sensor

Environment

This robot can absorb impact shocks by using its

joint softness based on mechanical stiffness adjustment
muscle modules, which is called nonlinear spring tension
unit(NST) like in Figure 9. If robots joint is adjusted as
low stiffness by NST, it can be adapted against suddenly
collision with environments without no joint feedback
control, because low joint stiffness is mechanically
achieved by NST units. Of course, low joint stiffness
can be achieved by joint feedback control by joint torque
sensor[15](or tension sensor in case of tendon robots).
However, it is difficult to achieve enough fast response to
impulse force, and also it does not work by some failure of
a torque sensor, which often is fragile. Therefore, in order
to develop adaptive humanoids with environment, robots
joints should be designed to control its own joint stiffness
mechanically.

Sin

Environment

Motion controller

Muscle group C

Joint controller C

Figure 13. Middle layer of motion controller for musculoskeletal

humanoids.

4. Achievement of musculoskeletal humanoids behavior

Researches of achievement of musculoskeletal robots
behavior have been studied based on mainly two
methodologies. The one is by controlling its joints based
on goal joint angle trajectory calculated like conventional
axis-driven robots. The other is by learning and searching
how to move its own complicated body itself. In the
case of controlling joint angle, tendon length trajectory
is converted from aimed joint angle trajectory by using
conversion methodology as we discuss later, and each
tendon length is controlled based on calculated trajectory
data as shown in Figure 12. However, this method has
the problem that precise joint control is difficult due to
elongation of tendon wires and the error of tendon paths in
the geometric model which is used in joint angle - tendon
length conversion process. Therefore, in the case which
needs accuracy of joint angles or end effector position,
sensor feedback control is necessary based on sensors
which can detect its joint angle or hand positions as shown
in Figure 13.

Yuto Nakanishi, Shigeki Ohta, Takuma Shirai, Yuki Asano, Toyotaka Kozuki, Yuriko Kakehashi, Hironori Mizoguchi,
Tomoko Kurotobi, Yotaro Motegi, Kazuhiro Sasabuchi, Junichi Urata, Kei Okada, Ikuo Mizuuchi and Masayuki Inaba:
Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired Musculoskeletal Humanoids

Feedforward control

Figure 14.
humanoid

Feedback control for

balancing

Muscle reflex based

on tension

Proposed balancing approach for musculoskeletal

From these background, learning and searching method

seems to be more fit for achievement of musculoskeletal
humanoids behaviors rather than conventional precise
joint control method, however, there are no established
method in these robot research field, which is currently
at the stage of many researchers exploring the method
through their trial and error approach as following:
Creeping motion acquisition based on modification
through initial motion through genetic algorithm
searching[17, 18], swinging behavior achievement based
on the sensor-guided methodology by genetic algorithm
based modification of the neural network whose input
is sensor value, such as gyroscope and accelerometer
and output is actuator state[19], achievement of stepping
motion based on sensor reflex[20] and auto-tuning
methods of its reflex control parameter in the real
world[21], pedaling motion acquisition by modification of
force control parameter through trial and error in the real
world [22]. Narioka et al. realized creeping behavior by
pneumatic tendon-driven musculoskeletal robot based on
on-line optimization of CPG parameters[23].
In addition, by constructing hierarchical sensor feedback
structure which consists of combination of spinal cord
reflex and voluntary movement like human control
structure(Figure 14, robust control method against the
error between the control model and the real robot body
is proposed [24, 25], such as keeping balance as shown in
Figure 15 and dynamic ball catching. Further, in order to
achieve these musculoskeletal humanoid behaviors, it is
important to maintain a continuous long-term operation
by using its complex physical body. The following are
key technologies in supporting the achievement of these
musculoskeletal humanoid movement.
4.1. Joint posture estimation methodology
It is a difficult task to obtain joint posture of a
musculoskeleltal humanoid which has complicated bone
structures like human body. Mainly two methods are
proposed to detect musculoskeleltal robots joint posture.
The one is joint posture estimation from muscle-tendon
information, and the other is to measure directly joint
posture by newly developing bone posture detection
sensors.
In tendon-driven robots, one joint posture can has
redundant actuators status, which means that actuator
status can be underspecified from one joint posture status.
Length set of tendons in a joint angle is easily obtained
by calculating geometric paths (i.e. backward kinematics),
however, it is difficult to obtain joint angle from length

Int J Adv Robotic Sy, 2013, Vol. 10, 216:2013

Figure 15. Demonstration of Kojiro bending/extending motion

using its hip and spine joints with proposed balancer

set of tendons (i.e. forward kinematics). The relationship

between joint angle and tendon lengthl is described
as jacobi matrix Jm (l = Jm ). Actually, joint angle
estimation methods are proposed[19] by using repeated
computation based on minimally changing joint angle


 = Jm l, where Jm is pseudo inverse matrix of Jm , and
using neural network.
In addition, by focusing on nonlinear relationship between
this joint angle and tendon length as shown in Figure
16, joint posture estimation method by using only tendon
velocity component information is proposed[26]. This
method enables to estimate joint posture from tendon
length information while humanoid moving without the
calibration task to detect base posture. Figure 17 is the
flowchart of this estimation method. These estimation
methods from tendon length information are suitable joint
angle acquisition approach for complicated joint, such as
spherical joint structures in human body. However, they
have the problem that it is difficult to estimate precise joint
angle due to tendon elongation and fracture.
On the other hand, we have also developed sensors which
detect directly posture of a spherical joint, such as the
sensor by using magnetic field change[27] and the sensor
by tracking spherical surfaces pattern by using tiny camera
which is used as cellular phone camera as shown in Figure
18[28].
4.2. Wearable suits based on muscle actuator units
In order to reinforce muscle and re-configure muscle
arrangement after developing humanoid, reinforceable

www.intechopen.com

Joint-Length Space

Samples of muscle
"relative" length

dL = const
d

Impossible to identify pattern!

Joint angle

Figure 19. The wearable device using muscle actuator modules.

16
14

Now joint posture: P(tnow)

50
48

10
8

Tension

*WOCPUKFG

Length

12
Tension [kgf]

Map f :posture to muscle length

-50

10

52
Tension

4QDQVUKFG

46

Length

-60

-70

-80

-90

44

Posture:P Muscle length:La

4

Quantization of Map f

42

DataBase:f[k]

P0 P1
L0 L1

Current posture estimation

PN
LN

L(tnow)
Base joint posture: P(t0)

Pattern matching
for decision of P(t0)
l(t0) l(t1)

Now absolute muscle length

Relative->Absolute

0
0

Length [mm]

Joint pose estimation in the case of a simple joint

Tension [kgf]

Figure 16.
structure

Pulley

Length [mm]

Link

Muscle length L

40
5

10
Time[s]

15

20

0
0

-100
5

10

15

20

Time[s]

Figure 20. Tension of robot and wearable device during table

cleaning motion.

l(tnow)

l(tnow)

Now relative muscle length

Sample Data: Lr

Relative muscle length (encoder)

Real robot

t = t0

t = t1

t = tnow

Figure 21. Motion control by a wearable device using muscle

actuator modules.

Figure 17. Flowchart of the proposed joint estimation algorithm

Figure 18. Sensor for spherical joint using a small camera

musculoskeletal humanoid Kotaro was designed. For

achievement of this reinforceable muscle concept,
muscle actuator is developed as a unit which can be
independently actuated[9, 29]. This muscle actuator unit
has tension sensor built-in, and it can control tendon
tension based on its sensor on 1[kHz] cycle. Tendon
tension control with constant goal tension force has been
used to teach and playback musculoskeletal humanoids
postures and motions[30].
By using this muscle actuator unit, we developed the
wearable manipulation suit[31] as shown in Figure 19.
This suit is basically a lacrosse protector, where 24
muscle actuator units are arranged across spine and
arm joints.
By controlling all units based on goal
tension value, each muscle units tendon length is
www.intechopen.com

automatically changed to fit according to wearers posture.

By estimating wearers posture from each muscle unit
tendon length information and sending wearers posture
to the musculoskeletal humanoid as goal posture, the
wearer can easily manipulate and navigate the robot.
Vice versa, by modifying goal tension value of muscle
units on the wearable suit according to the tension
sensor value on the navigated robot, the wearer can
feel robots reaction force from environment. Figure
20 shows muscle tension transition in the navigated
robot(the left) and the wearer(the right) sides. By this
bilateral-navigation-control system, the wearer can teach
not only robot motion and also reaction force in its hand,
which is very useful to achieve behaviors with contact to
environments, such as wiping table (Figure 21) and so on.
4.3. Wholebody distributed motor-sensor control system
In super multi degree of freedom musculoskeleltal
humanoid with over 100 actuators and 500 sensors,
it is necessary to deal with large number of these
sensor-motor information efficiently. Base concept of
information communication structure is the distributed
motor-sensor control system, where distributed small
processors individually control local actuators and collect
local sensors on real-time 1[kHz] cycle, and central main
processor communicates with each distributed processor
on slower 100[Hz] cycle[32].

Yuto Nakanishi, Shigeki Ohta, Takuma Shirai, Yuki Asano, Toyotaka Kozuki, Yuriko Kakehashi, Hironori Mizoguchi,
Tomoko Kurotobi, Yotaro Motegi, Kazuhiro Sasabuchi, Junichi Urata, Kei Okada, Ikuo Mizuuchi and Masayuki Inaba:
Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired Musculoskeletal Humanoids

Figure 24. Musculoskeletal humanoid Kenshiro

Figure 22. Example of warning on robot information viewer.

RS485 have been set to 3 MHz and data are exchanged

through asynchronous serial communication. This new
board is adopted by our robots Kenzoh(in section 3) and
Kenshiro(in section 5).
5. Challenge to realize a musculoskeletal humanoid as a
human body simulator
As we mentioned above, we have developed and
controlled complicated musculoskeletal humanoids,
which have about 70 DOFs joints comprising a spine, a
scapula and collarbone joint, and over 100 redundant
tendon actuators.

Figure 23. Communication configuration

Firstly, we developed the small motor driver board

(36[mm] x 46[mm]) which can drive 4 axes DC4[W] motors
and continuously generate 5[A] and each motor drivers
communicate with main central processor through USB
communication[33]. In these large distributed control
system, it is important to visualize whole sensor-motor
control status to detect disordered parts and prevent
breakdown. Actually we developed visualization system
[34, 35] as shown in Figure 22. And also, it is important
weight power ratio in the robot actuating system. From
Kojiro robot, we have adopted high-power motor driver,
which instantly drives motor with over its rating power
based on motor inner coils thermal estimation[12].
Thanks to this high-power driving system, Kojiro can
generate instantly 10 times greater power than older
robot Kotaro. Actually we developed new motor driver
H8-18 based on this thermal control methodology. H8-18
is equipped with microcomputer H8S/2215 of Renesus
Technologies Ltd. Co.Afs
make and FPGA Cyclone III
of Altera Inc.Afs
make. With H8S/2215 and FPGA
being interconnected by a bus, H8S/2215 communicates
with the host computer via USB (12 Mbps) and FPGA
performs communications on RS485 with LTC2854 the
same way as FPGA-01D. Figure 23 shows H8-18 and
communication diagram and other systems that are used
for driving. Assuming that a maximum of four boards
should be connected per H8-18, communication speeds of
8

Int J Adv Robotic Sy, 2013, Vol. 10, 216:2013

However, these robots are designed by changing and

simplifying the tendon arrangements and bone shapes of
these robots as compared to human body, due to limitation
of implementation technology, especially bone materials
and actuator systems. They are also inadequate as a detail
human body simulator in the real world.
Therefore, in order to solve these problems, we are now
newly developing a musculoskeletal humanoid, which
is named "Kenshiro"(see Figure 24). Kenshiro imitates
human body with great accuracy, such as especially
following points:
Weight ratios and sizes of each bones/limbs
Muscle arrangements and joint arrangements
Muscle output power
The goal of this robot is the achievement of both 1)very
humanlike joint and muscle arrangements and 2)actuator
performances for fullbody motion.
5.1. Human bones imitation in weight and sizes
Figure 25 shows kenshiro specification. Kenshiro is
designed so that its height becomes shortest as long as
it can contains 100 new actuators. Finally, the height
of Kenshiro will be in the order of 158[cm] and it
weight approximately 50[kg]. This corresponds to almost
Japanese 12 aged boys height and weights according to
the statistical data by Japan government 3 . Each bone
links size and weight are determined by proportionally
converting the statistical data(size-JPN 2004-2006) 4 of
http://www.mext.go.jp/bmenu/toukei/chousa05/hoken/
kekka/kdetail/1303380.htm
4
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20071001007/20071001007.html
3

www.intechopen.com

3 DOFs spherical joint

2 DOFs oval spherical joint

158cm, 50kg

2 DOFs universal joint

1 DOF rotational joint

Joint DOFs arrangement

Bone arrangement(Front , Back)

Bone and actuator

arrangement(Front )

Bone, actuator and muscle tendons

arrangement(Front , Back)

Figure 25. Outline of Kenshiro as a detail human simulator robot

Japanese young man with 170cm tall, which is published

by NEDO 5 , to the goal height 158cm.
5.2. Human joint arrangement imitation
Kenshiro has 64 joint DOFs except hands DOFs, which
consists of a neck 13 DOFs, each arm 13 DOFs, each leg
7 DOFs and spines 11 DOFs, as shown in Figure 25. In
these joint structures, especially its spines and knee joint is
different form conventional musculoskeletal humanoids
ones.
Conventional spine structures before Kenshiro are
designed as from 3 to 10 series articular joint structures,
of which each joint is implemented as 3-DOFs spherical
joint mechanism. However, in actual human body, the
spine joint movable range has aeolotropies. For example,
human 12 series thoracic vertebrae can rotate 20[deg]
in roll axis, from +45[deg] to -40[deg] in pitch axis and
35[deg] in yaw axis, and also human 5 series lumbar
vertebrae can rotate 20[deg] in roll axis, from +60[deg]
to -20[deg] in pitch axis and 5[deg] in yaw axis[36].
According to this anatomical data, we can regard that
human lumbar vertebrae seldom contribute yaw axis
rotation. Therefore, in Kenshiros spine structure, lumbar
vertebrae is designed as a 5 series articular joint structure,
of which each joint is 2 DOFs mechanisms which can
rotate in only roll and pitch axis and cannot rotate in yaw
axis, as shown in Figure 26. A chest is designed as a solid
construction with no movable parts. Inside of chest part,
30 actuators to drive arms, lumbar vertebrae(i.e. spine)
and cervical vertebrae(i.e. neck) must be embedded. If
thoracic vertebrae moved, we would have had to solve the
problems of interferences between chest bones(i.e. costal
bones) and 30 actuator systems within chest part. This
problem is very difficult to solve, therefore, at present,
we designed Kenshiros chest as one solid part by fixing
5

New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization

www.intechopen.com

Figure 26. Kenshiro spine joint arrangement

each thoracic vertebrae joints. However, Kenshiros chest

consists of 12 thoracic vertebrae similar to actual human
chest. We aim to realize movable chest part in near future
by unfixing each thoracic vertebrae.
And also Kenshiro has one DOFs rotational joint in yaw
axis, between the bottom of its solid chest part and the
top of lumbar vertebrae. With these approximations,
Kenshiros spine will achieve approximately the same
range of movements of humans.
Conventional knee joints before Kenshiro are designed
as simple rotational joints or rolling joints, however, the
human knee joint mechanism is much more complicated.
Etoundi et al. developed a knee joint which has parallel
linkage structures as human cruciate ligaments[37].
Kenshiros knee has also parallel linkage structure and, in
addition, a floating bone as a patella. And also Kenshiros
knee structure enables to achieve a screw home movement,

Yuto Nakanishi, Shigeki Ohta, Takuma Shirai, Yuki Asano, Toyotaka Kozuki, Yuriko Kakehashi, Hironori Mizoguchi,
Tomoko Kurotobi, Yotaro Motegi, Kazuhiro Sasabuchi, Junichi Urata, Kei Okada, Ikuo Mizuuchi and Masayuki Inaba:
Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired Musculoskeletal Humanoids

Figure 28. Generating torque in Kenshiro and Kojiro hip pitch joint
Figure 27. Kenshiro knee mechanism

which is the human knees typical movement. Human

knee can be twisted when its knee is bent, and also it
cannot be twisted when it is extended. It means human
knees movable range around twisting axis depends on
its bending angle. Figure 27 shows Kenshiros knee
mechanism.
5.3. Human muscle arrangement imitation
The muscle arrangement of Kenshiro imitates human
main muscle arrangements as shown in Figure 25.
Especially, geometric positions of muscle insertion
points(i.e.
beginpoints and endpoints) in bones are
precisely imitated based on real human anatomical bone
data model. And also we design as similar bone shape
to humans as possible, because outer shapes of bones
have influence on interference between bone surface and
muscle tendons.

Chest s thoracic vartebrae :

aluminum cutting work
Knee and pelvis bone by aluminum cutting work

Collar bone made of CFRP

Collar bone made by Metal SLS

Chest s costal bone:

aluminum casting

Figure 29. Bone structures of Kenshiro

Finally, Kenshiro has more muscles, that are also better

arranged than previous musculoskeletal humaniod robots.
Actually, it has 102 muscle actuators except head, neck
and hands, and 160 muscles, which consist of 50 muscles
in its legs, 76 muscles in its trunk part, 12 muscles in
its shoulder and neck parts and 22 muscles in arms. In
Kenshiro, the number of DOF is more than the number of
actuators. This is because that we adopt a planar muscle
mechanism as Kenshiros muscle in trunk body, such as
its abdominal muscles, latissimus dorsi and so on. Planar
muscle mechanism enables to move several muscles by
only one actuator by using moving pulley.

also, Kenshiros knee joint can generate continuous torque

116[Nm] and noload angular velocity is 19.6[rpm]. This
specification is comparable to general fullbody axis-driven
humanoid HRP2 [1, 38] which can walk.

5.4. Muscle power improvement for fullbody motion

5.5. Complicated and strong bone design imitating humanlike

bone shapes

Except 8 muscles for wrist drive, all 94 muscle actuators

consist of Maxon 100[W] AC motors, therefore, total
rated power output of Kenshiro becomes about 10000[W]
and rated power output per unit mass becomes about
200[W/kg]. Actually, Kenshiro total rated power output
corresponds to as 5 times as Kojiros one. Kojiro is
the previous musculoskeletal humanoid we developed in
2008. It can somewhat walk, stand up, and do some
fullbody motions[21, 24]. And Kenshiro rated power
per unit mass corresponds to as 3 times as Kojiros
one. Actually Figure 28 shows the torque generated at
the hip joint in Kojiro(blue) and Kenshiro(green). And
www.intechopen.com

Thanks to this large improvement of power output, we

aim to make Kenshiro do fullbody motions, which require
strong motor intensity, such as walking with humanlike
spine motion, standing up motion from sitting on a chair.
It is very important in order to make Kenshiro the actual
human body simulator to evaluate each muscle load
during walking.

As mentioned above, we have to design precisely

humanlike outer bone shapes, in order to imitate human
muscle arrangement in not only insertion points but also
tendon paths, because there are interferences between
muscle tendons and outer surface of bones and this
interference effects depend on clearly shapes of outer bone.
In the musculoskeletal humanoids we developed so far, we
build bones based on rapid prototyping processes, such
as SLA and SLS and so on, to realize humanoid bones
with humanlike complex curved surface shapes. However,
these bone materials which can be manufactured by these

Yuto Nakanishi, Shigeki Ohta, Takuma Shirai, Yuki Asano, Toyotaka Kozuki, Yuriko Kakehashi, Hironori Mizoguchi,
Tomoko Kurotobi, Yotaro Motegi, Kazuhiro Sasabuchi, Junichi Urata, Kei Okada, Ikuo Mizuuchi and Masayuki Inaba:
Design Approach of Biologically-Inspired Musculoskeletal Humanoids

10

rapid prototyping, such as ABS plastic resin and nylon

resin, is much more fragile than metal materials, such as
aluminum alloy. As a result, we have to change bone
shapes to improve bones strength. Therefore, as long as
we adopt these fragile materials as humanoid structure, it
is difficult to precisely imitate human bone shapes, which
has many small outshoot parts and thin parts, such as a
pelvis bone, vertebrae, a costal bone, a scapula bone and
so on.
Therefore, almost all bone structures of Kenshiro are made
of strong materials, such as aluminum alloy, steel alloy
and CFRP and so on. Thanks to these materials, even
humanlike small outshoot parts and thin parts can be
built without any fragility. On the other hand, these
metal materials are more difficult to product than the
materials by rapid prototyping manufacture, especially in
the complicated bone structure with humanlike curved
surfaces.
It means that the bones cost more.
In
Kenshiro, in order to reduce these bone design cost,
we select manufacturing methods depending on bone
shapes. Figure 29 shows Kenshiros bone structures.
For example, costal bones are produced by aluminum
casting based on lost-wax process, because costal bones
consist of about 30 parts and also, each part shapes are
quite complicated with curved surfaces. Pelvis bone is
produced by aluminum cutting work, because pelvis bone
consists of only two parts(i.e. left and right part) and the
complex shape consists of convex curved surfaces, which
can somewhat easily be worked by cutting. Vertebra bone
is also produced by aluminum cutting work by separating
vertebra bone into two parts(i.e. a main joint part and
a stylocerite part), of which each part can be simplified
and easily worked by cutting. Two kind of collar bones
are test-produced. The one is made of CFRP material,
which enables to make a collar bone a long thin structure,
because CFRP is more stiff than other materials, such as
aluminum and steel. The other is made by metal Selective
Laser Sintering, which enables to make a collar bone shape
very complicated as shown in Figure 29.
6. Conclusion
Robotics field is a frontier of autonomous system
which integrates evolution of science, engineering and
technology.
Many young researchers have become
enthusiastic in this field with ambitious dreams. Especially
in this paper, we introduced studies on life-sized
musculoskeletal humanoids which has humanlike really
complicated body, as a research theme where researchers
have to keep pursuing new intelligent robotics frontier.
By setting these humanlike musculoskeletal humanoid
researches as one of big theme of our laboratory, we
have to keep thinking about evolution of intelligent
robotics that is how to design these complicated body
structure and how to manage these complicated body. It
may take a long time to realize a great musculoskeletal
humanoid, however, we feel that humanlike flexibility and
redundancy are necessary in order to achieve a partner
robot which support our life with us in future. This
paper concludes that these musculoskeletal humanoids
have enough potential and possibility to become a future

www.intechopen.com

humanoid platform in both daily assistive robotics fields

and intelligence robotics fields.
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13