Design methodology for the thorax and shoulder of human mimetic musculoskeletal humanoid Kenshiro -a thorax structure with rib like surface -

To design a robot with humanlike body structure, this paper presents a design methodology for a humanoid upper limb by tendon driven system. We newly designed an upper limb and rib cage like thorax for a musculoskeletal humanoid robot, based on the knowledge of anatomy. The robot consists of muscle, bone, and joint structure based on human and is expected to move flexibly and dynamically. This paper describes how to design such an upper limb and proposes the key mechanical design points, which is “rib surface thorax”, “muscle cushion”, “planar muscle”, and “open type ball joint”. To show that these mechanisms is effective in making a musculoskeletal humanoid robot, we examine the motion range of the robot. One of our goals is to enable robots to do the same movements as humans do through mimicking the human body structure, finding some important elements of human nature. This robots explained in this paper is the prototype for a new life size robot “Kenshiro” project.