MANOI the athlete humanoid
All the way back in 2004 the Kondo KHR-1 robot kit was introduced and it was mainly geared at hobbyists. The KHR-1 was capable of doing flips, cartwheels and had 17 adjustable joints. Obviously being a kit it required a dedicated robot enthusiast with the time, skill and the $1500 or so necessary to purchase the robot kit. But what about robot fans who wanted to own an advanced robot, yet didn’t necessarily want to assemble one?
Kyosho is now slated to release a robot built on the KHR-1’s skeleton already assembled. The “MANOI athlete humanoid” is touted as a Robot Athlete is specifically designed for competition.
The company that handles MANOI’s distribution (Kyosho) has even scheduled the “Kyosho Athletics Humanoid Cup”. I like the idea of a product that already has events planned for its user base.
Some of the competitions include: a 5-meter run and a 20-meter run. Look for the MANOI to be released sometime this summer.
