Kawada's HRP-4 has some excellent balance and flexibility.

Kawada and AIST continue to promote their newest bipedal robot, the HRP-4, with clips of its smooth motions and graceful movements. The streamlined HRP-4 has a better range of motion and more room to move than any previous robot in the HRP series- it also looks more human while working. Kawada recently announced that the HRP-4 will go on sale early next year for a price tag of $300,000 – aiming to get robotics researchers around the world to adopt it as a development platform. This series of bots certainly has demonstrated success in the past with bipedal motion, so the HRP-4 may be a popular unit come January. Watch the robot show off its smooth moves in the four clips from Kawada below. The video demonstrating how the HRP-4 can stretch and flex is pretty cool – looks like it’s warming up for a jog.

[screen capture and video credits: Kawada]