A Comparative Study Between Humans and Humanoid Robots

Abstract

Humanoid robots are usually designed with the goal to realize humanlike topology, structure, and physical properties, as it would allow the robots to work in existing infrastructure built for humans. For example, most humanoid robots have two arms and/or two legs, and each leg typically consists of a three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) hip, a one-DOF knee, and two- or three-DOF ankle joints, similar to the human leg structure. Many humanoid robots have been successful in emulating the human body at least at a higher level. However, there are many important differences between existing humanoid robot hardware and the human body. For example, it is often impossible to physically implement the same kinematic properties such as number of joints and range of motion using commonly available materials and components. Actuators are also very different because none of the existing man-made actuators can match the power density of human muscles. Although understanding human motor control has seen a lot of progress and inspired some robot controllers lately, there are still significant differences in their complexity and performance. These differences between the human body and humanoid robots have significant impact on the physical capability of current humanoid robot hardware. Studying them may therefore give insights on how humanoid robotics researchers can improve the agility and versatility of humanoid robots.