Developing driverless cars is a challenging task for companies like Tesla and Google. These cars need to be able to sense their surroundings and control the car without human intervention. At the University of Tokyo, scientists led by Dr. Kento Kawaharazuka have taken a different approach. Instead of creating fully autonomous vehicles, they have developed a robot called Musashi that can drive a regular car.
Musashi is not your typical robot. It has a musculoskeletal structure that closely resembles the human body, with 74 “muscles” and 39 joints, excluding the hands. Its hands have five fingers each, and there are pressure sensors in both the hands and feet. This design allows Musashi to perform tasks like turning a steering wheel, pressing pedals, using the handbrake, turning the ignition key, and using indicators.
The robot’s eyes are equipped with high-resolution cameras connected to artificial intelligence systems. This enables Musashi to recognize people in the wing mirrors and react to driving events such as changing traffic lights or pedestrians stepping into the road.
While Musashi is a significant advancement in robotics and autonomous driving technology, it is still in the early stages of development. Currently, the robot can only drive in a straight line and turn right, with a top speed of just 3 mph. Dr. Kawaharazuka acknowledges that the speed and handling are not yet comparable to that of human drivers.
In the future, Dr. Kawaharazuka envisions humanoid robots like Musashi serving as versatile drivers, potentially being able to switch between different vehicles. This could allow owners of non-autonomous cars to sit back and relax while the robot takes the wheel. However, there are still challenges to overcome, such as advancing the technology and addressing passenger comfort with robotic drivers.
Musashi represents an innovative approach to autonomous driving, combining advanced hardware design with sophisticated software modules to perform human-like driving tasks. While it may be some time before we see robots like Musashi chauffeuring celebrities to red carpet events, the technology opens up exciting possibilities for the future of transportation.
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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson, an award-winning tech journalist, shares his insights on technology, gear, and gadgets that enhance our lives. For more tech questions and stories, visit CyberGuy.com.
