From ancient Japanese martial arts to the creation of a sports robot that can communicate with peopleInnoUvators

The first sports robot which Tanaka created, was one that reproduced particular techniques found in Japanese martial arts. Traditional Japanese martial arts feature a variety of body control exercises, within which exist some truly amazing techniques. One such technique allows you to "defeat your opponent without having to use any force at all." During his time studying for his postgraduate degree, Tanaka met Kunihiro Ogata - a senior member of the Intelligent Systems and Informatics Laboratory (currently at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology). After studying these martial arts, Ogata decided to incorporate motion-capture technology in an attempt to measure and scientifically analyze the body control exercises found in martial arts.The aim was to see if he could gain some clear understanding of the principles behind these techniques and discover if they could be incorporated into the design and manipulation of robots.