Robots that look like people are nothing new, but not all of them truly aim to imitate the human body. The Kenshiro robot, an ongoing project at the University of Tokyo, aims to simulate a person right down the muscles and bones. Kenshiro is the latest in a series that started with Kenta, a robot made to imitate, in simplified form, most of the human body’s musculature. A quasi-futuristic shell and staring eyes gave it a slightly nightmarish appearance, but the robot itself was groundbreaking. With about 100 cables and motors, it simulated dozens of muscle structures. Now, the upgraded and renamed version has 160 pulley-like robo-muscles — more than any other humanoid robot in the world. There are 76 in the torso, 22 in the neck, 25 in each leg, and 12 in each shoulder. The many muscles and tendons governing the face, hands, and feet are left out or grossly simplified, being at present too complex to include. The result is a headless skeleton that may or may not be more terrifying than its predecessor. But seeing it in motion is what really drops you into the uncanny valley.
