Kawada HRP-3 Promet Mk-II

HRP-3 Promet Mk-II was the closing machine of a Japanese state programme run by NEDO on fundamental technologies for humanoid robots that work in real environments — and the phrase "real environments" is the whole point of the design. Where its predecessor HRP-2 was a laboratory reference biped, HRP-3 was built to survive conditions a laboratory never has: Kawada Industries announced it in 2007 with a dust-proof and splash-proof body, so the robot can be taken to a building site or an outdoor test without a change in the weather ending the experiment. The second target was traction. Walking on a clean, dry, level floor is a solved problem; walking on a slippery surface is not, because a foot that slips destroys the assumptions a walking controller makes about where the body is. HRP-3 was developed specifically to keep its balance on such ground, and higher-output, higher-efficiency actuators were fitted to improve the walking itself. The robot is 160 cm tall, weighs 68 kg and has 42 degrees of freedom — twelve more than HRP-2 and a considerably heavier machine. Part of that extra freedom went into coordinated control of the legs and arms together, which widens the volume the robot can work in: a humanoid that can shift its stance to reach further is a humanoid that does not need to be positioned perfectly in front of its task. Kawada Robotics still lists HRP-3 in the research section of its catalogue, without a published price or delivery time.

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