抄録
In order to research developmental mechanism in infancy, several child-like humanoid robots have been created. However, most of them do not have suitable body for affective and close physical interaction, such as flexible small body and realistic appearance. From this view point, we have started to create a new child robot, Affetto. It has realistic appearance of 1- to 2-year-old child, and flexible body structure with 22 pneumatic actuators in its upper body. However, it lacks its lower body designed based on the same concept. Therefore, we selected appropriate pneumatic cylinder types for each joint in the lower body and parameters of slider crank mechanisms to convert cylinders' rectilinear motion into rotary motion. This selection is important for rich umbers of DPFs, range of motions, the lower body's shape, weight, and mechanical joint flexibility. In this paper, we introduce a prototype lower body joint mechanism.
