Development of a humanoid robot Saika

This article addresses the development of a light-weight, human-size and low-cost developing humanoid robot named Saika. Saika has a 2-DOF neck, two 5-DOF upper arms, a torso and a head. Several types of hands and forearms are developed. They are chosen depending upon the tasks to perform. The features of Saika are: (a) Saika as modularized to reduce the developing cost and to make maintenance easy, (b) the total weight of the head, the neck, the two upper arms and the torso is only eight kilograms and (c) most of the motors are installed inside the arms and the torso.