Seven facial expressions
Its makers say KOBIAN shows seven feelings, including surprise, sorrow, happiness and disgust, using motors that move the lips, eyelids and eyebrows. [2]
Price & availability
Waseda University has not published a price
Discontinued
Current dataset status: Discontinued.
Product overview
About Waseda KOBIAN
KOBIAN is an expressive humanoid that Waseda University developed with the Kyushu robot maker Tmsuk, and it was presented in 2009. Waseda's May 2026 retrospective describes it as a project led by Professor Atsuo Takanishi that was created to study how robots can show feelings, rather than to focus on walking or lifting.
The robot shows seven emotions, including surprise, sorrow, happiness and disgust. Motors in its face move the lips, eyelids and eyebrows, and a double-jointed neck helps the upper body strike expressive poses. A Waseda-authored paper gives the original robot 48 degrees of freedom, including four in each hand, and a maximum continuous operating time of 20 minutes.
The 65-degree-of-freedom and 140 cm figures on Robots Guide appear to describe the later KOBIAN-R revision rather than the original 2009 robot. This page therefore does not combine its speed figure with the original KOBIAN specifications. No current development, price or purchase route for the original robot was found, so the page treats it as a historical research platform.
“Instead of focusing on tasks like walking or lifting, KOBIAN, another project led by Prof. Takanishi, was created to study how robots can show feelings.”
Capabilities
Key features
Double-jointed neck
A double-jointed neck helps the robot strike expressive poses, such as drooping its head with a hand raised to its forehead to show sadness. [2]
Built to study feelings
Waseda's 2026 retrospective says KOBIAN was created to study how robots can show feelings, rather than to focus on walking or lifting. [1]
Hardware profile
Specifications
Official — stated by the manufacturer or organizerReported — stated by a credible third partyEstimated — derived or approximate
Body
Power
- Runtime
- 0.33 hReported — stated by a credible third party[5]Maximum continuous motion time of 20 minutes, converted to hours
Hands & Manipulation
- DoF per hand
- 4Reported — stated by a credible third party[5]The paper assigns eight DoF to both hands combined
Compute & Sensing
- Onboard compute
- Pentium M 1.8 GHz PC with 2 GB memoryReported — stated by a credible third party[5]
Show unknown fields (9)
Mobility
- Maximum speed
- Not published
- Peak joint torque
- Not published
Power
- Battery
- Not published
- Charge time
- Not published
- Swappable battery
- Not published
Hands & Manipulation
- Payload
- Not published
- Hand / end effector
- Not published
Compute & Sensing
- Sensors
- Not published
- AI stack
- Not published
Quick answers
Waseda KOBIAN FAQ
Can you buy Waseda KOBIAN?
No general order page is verified. Waseda KOBIAN is currently classified as discontinued. [1]
How tall is Waseda KOBIAN and how much does it weigh?
How long does the Waseda KOBIAN battery last?
The stated runtime is 0.33 hours per charge; Maximum continuous motion time of 20 minutes, converted to hours. [5]
How many degrees of freedom does Waseda KOBIAN have?
Waseda KOBIAN has 48 listed degrees of freedom; Original KOBIAN; later KOBIAN-R configurations differ. [5]
Who makes Waseda KOBIAN?
Waseda KOBIAN is made by Waseda University, based in Japan. [1]
Side by side
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Evaluation footprint
Benchmarks & competitions
No benchmark embodiments or results reference this robot yet.
Related
Similar robots
Evidence
Sources
- [1]The Robots of Waseda: A 50-Year Journey in Humanoid Innovation ↗Waseda University · official · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [2]KOBIAN: the emotional humanoid robot ↗New Atlas · press · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [3]Kobian - Wikipedia ↗Wikipedia · database · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [4]Kobian - Robots Guide ↗Robots Guide · database · accessed Oct 8, 2026
- [5]Development of Whole-Body Emotional Expression Humanoid Robot for ADL-Assistive RT Services ↗Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics · paper · accessed Oct 8, 2026