Characteristics, Management, and Utilization of Muscles in Musculoskeletal Humanoids: Empirical Study on Kengoro and Musashi

TL;DR

This paper categorizes and analyzes the properties of muscles in musculoskeletal humanoids, focusing on Kengoro and Musashi, to improve understanding of their management, control, and utilization for advanced biomimetic robotics.

Contribution

It introduces a unified classification of muscle properties and discusses their implications for control, learning, and adaptation in musculoskeletal humanoids, based on empirical research.

Findings

Classification of five key muscle properties.

Analysis of advantages and disadvantages of properties.

Discussion on control and adaptation methods.

Abstract

Various musculoskeletal humanoids have been developed so far, and numerous studies on control mechanisms have been conducted to leverage the advantages of their biomimetic bodies. However, there has not been sufficient and unified discussion on the diverse properties inherent in these musculoskeletal structures, nor on how to manage and utilize them. Therefore, this study categorizes and analyzes the characteristics of muscles, as well as their management and utilization methods, based on the various research conducted on the musculoskeletal humanoids we have developed, Kengoro and Musashi. We classify the features of the musculoskeletal structure into five properties: Redundancy, Independency, Anisotropy, Variable Moment Arm, and Nonlinear Elasticity. We then organize the diverse advantages and disadvantages of musculoskeletal humanoids that arise from the combination of these properties. In particular, we discuss body schema learning and reflex control, along with muscle grouping and body schema adaptation. Also, we describe the implementation of movements through an integrated system and discuss future challenges and prospects.