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Design

Kenshiro Robot Mimics Human Skeleton And Muscles

The musculoskeletal robot overlords are coming.

You know that scene in Terminator 2 where Arnie cuts into his arm and it’s all bloody and fleshy over his bionic skeleton? Well science took a step closer to that scenario recently with the Kenshiro robot, designed by Yuto Nakanishi and his team of researchers at University of Tokyo. The robot imitates a human body with a skeleton and 160 muscles, the most any robot has had so far.

To add to its general creepiness it comes without a head, but at least that means it can’t see you to hunt you down. However, what it loses in sight it makes up for in its capacity to mimic the movements of a human body, including muscle torque and joint speeds.

And before you start dooming humanity, it’s built to imitate an average Japanese 12-year-old male, measuring 158 centimeters tall and weighing 110 pounds, so it hopefully won’t overcome the scientists and go on a rampage—when it’s built to mimic a 430 pound strong man than we should fear for our lives.

[via Spectrum.ieee.org]

@stewart23rd