{"id":6508,"date":"2026-01-15T17:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T08:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"urn:uuid:e22fa9c0-9fcb-4837-bb7f-b1d4c0b3f76c"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:37:14","slug":"202511_kaleido","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kawasakirobotics.com\/asia-oceania\/blog\/202511_kaleido\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanoid Robot: The Evolution of Kawasaki\u2019s Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kawasaki Robotics, driven by its purpose \u201cUnlocking human ingenuity to create robotics that enrich the future\u201d<\/em> has long pursued the development of technologies that enable robots and people to coexist. The ultimate form of this coexistence is the humanoid robot\u2014capable of moving on two legs and performing tasks with two arms, giving it the versatility necessary to take on work traditionally done by humans.
This article introduces the lineage of Kawasaki\u2019s humanoid robots, from the first prototype to the eighth generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Origins of Kawasaki\u2019s Humanoid Development<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kawasaki, the company that built Japan\u2019s first industrial robot, has long led the field of industrial robotics for factory production lines. Drawing on more than half a century of experience in developing and manufacturing industrial robots, Kawasaki has also expanded into human\u2011centric robotics\u2014creating systems that provide value outside traditional factory cells. These include the duAro dual-arm collaborative robot, designed to work safely beside humans, and Successor, a remote\u2011cooperation system that removes the difficulty of conventional robot teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the ultimate extension of these efforts, Kawasaki is developing humanoid robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because humanoids walk on two legs and perform tasks with two arms, they offer a high degree of freedom and the potential to take on work traditionally performed by humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Evolution of the Kaleido Series<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2015 \u2014 The First Prototype<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kawasaki began developing humanoid robots around 2015. For a company that had long specialized in industrial robots, creating a robot capable of bipedal locomotion represented a major challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To determine how to reproduce a human\u2011like form mechanically, the team first explored how motors and joint mechanisms should be arranged. However, the deeper we studied human anatomy, the more we realized just how complex and flexible the human body truly is. This led to a shift in design philosophy: instead of trying to replicate human motion directly, we extracted only the essential functions of the human body and recreated them using motors and mechanical structures. This conceptual shift ultimately enabled the realization of stable bipedal walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest differences between industrial robots and humanoid robots is the load they must support. A typical industrial robot with a 100\u2011kg payload often weighs more than 600 kg and is designed to lift objects lighter than itself. In contrast, a humanoid must lift loads greater than its own body weight, making extreme weight reduction critically important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first prototype had insufficient leg rigidity, and its knee mechanism in particular was vulnerable to torsion, resulting in unstable walking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Kaleido1\u53f7\u6a5f\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Up to the third prototype, those were used the E\u2011controller designed for industrial robots. However, it was large, had a control cycle too slow for humanoid applications, and required four separate units, which meant the controllers alone occupied a significant amount of space. These issues were later resolved by transitioning first to the F\u2011controller and eventually to a dedicated humanoid controller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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