From human spine to humanoid robot torso

In recent years, humanoid robots have received a lot of attention. Many types of humanoid robots have been developed. For humanoid robots, human-like torso features are essential in obtaining humanlike motion features. However, there is still no satisfied torso design among them with their limited kinematic or dynamic features. It is necessary to carry out a deep study of human torso with the aim to get more inspirations from it. For this purpose, a characterization of human torso is carried out from a perspective of robotics. Then, a literature review of current humanoid robots which have torsos more or less inspired from human spine is presented, and some representative robot torsos are analyzed in detail in order to find possible ways to improve the current design. Based on these two aspects, analysis and discussions are given as benefit for a better torso design for humanoid robots.