Swimming Humanoid Robot “SWUMANOID” as an Experimental Platform for Research of Human Swimming

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a humanoid robot for research about human swimming. In order to replace a swimmer as a subject, a humanoid robot “SWUMANOID” was developed imitating the details of a human, such as appearance and body properties. To reproduce the swimming motion based on that of an actual swimmer, a joint imitating the human’s scapular retraction was installed and the methodology to realize the swimming motion with that joint was established. To validate the performance of the robot, two experiments were conducted. The crawl stroke motion was examined in the fixed state and the swimming performance was validated by a free swimming experiment.