Atlas record: https://www.aitimeline.dev/en/events/evt-0124/
Milestone · 1973
WABOT-1
Waseda completed the world's first full-scale anthropomorphic robot: it walked on two legs, saw, grasped objects and answered in Japanese.
Why it matters
Putting every faculty into one body showed how expensive each of them separately is.
The machine had vision, hearing and speech, limbs with tactile sensors, and a static bipedal gait. Its mental level was assessed as roughly that of a one-and-a-half-year-old child, and a single step took tens of seconds. Ichiro Kato led the project; this line of work defined the Japanese school of humanoid robotics for the next half century.
Event record
- Event date
- 1973
- Timeline date
- Event date
- Verification
- Sources gathered automatically · September 17, 2026
- Lines
- ID
- evt-0124
Year the machine was completed; the WABOT programme began in 1970.
Related events
Earlier
- Related Shakey 1969
A second attempt in the same years to join perception, decision and motion in one body.
- Related Unimate on the General Motors line 1961
Unlike a programmable arm, this machine has perception and moves itself.
Same period
Later
- Related The Stanford Cart crosses a room 1979links to this record
Two machines of the late 1970s running into the same cost of perception.
- Related One leg balances in three dimensions 1983links to this record
WABOT-1 walked statically, keeping its centre of mass over the foot and spending tens of seconds a step; Raibert's hopper keeps its balance only in motion and reaches 2.2 m/s.
- Related Honda P2: the first humanoid with its own battery 1996links to this record
WABOT-1 of 1973 walked statically with steps of tens of seconds on external power; P2 walks with a dynamic gait with battery and computer in its torso.