Design of the Humanoid Robot TOCABI

Abstract

The rapidly improving mechanical systems and control algorithms of humanoid robots brings them ever-closer to integration with humans in-situ. As this trend begins a process of research robots to general products, the dissemination of design decisions and application-specific compromises becomes as equally important as the underlying technology itself. Like-wise, the newly discovered applications and societal integration raise new questions for research, including how a humanoid robot should look - and what technological innovations are needed to support such look. While the uncanny valley is often the forefront of humanoid robot design discussions, we present a new full-size humanoid robot named TOCABI, that side-steps the valley and brings forth the question of academic challenges needed to support a new paradigm of industrial design for humanoid robots.