Japanese Team Unveils SEIMEI Humanoid Robot Prototype, Fails to Show Walking Due to Last-Minute Fault

Murata Manufacturing, Waseda University, and robot maker tmsuk recently unveiled the initial prototype of Japan's humanoid robot SEIMEI in Kyoto. Standing 140cm tall and weighing 49kg, the robot failed to demonstrate walking due to a last-minute fault and will be showcased again in late May after repairs.

Named after Abe no Seimei, an Onmyoji from Japan's Heian period, the project targets mass-producing disaster-site-ready models by March 2029. With 2 universities and 14 companies involved, the prototype took only 4 months to build. Notably, though motors and sensors are Japanese-made, the control core GPU uses Nvidia products.