Kawasaki Heavy Industries · research humanoid
Friends
A slimmer, softer-looking companion to Kawasaki's rugged Kaleido, with curved covers and a display face showing animated eyes, aimed at homes and care facilities; with Osaka University's Nagai Lab it answers questions with AI and matches gestures to speech.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- —Not published
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
A research humanoid from Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Real-world use
Talked with children at a public event at Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan).
Timeline
- First shown
- 2021
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
Kawasaki Heavy IndustriesCompany · founded 1896 · Tokyo and Kobe, JapanPublic company (TSE 7012).
What it has been shown doing
We checked public videos and press for Friends and found no clear demo of the skills we track yet.
Public attention
How much public attention Friends gets, from open data.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- 1 news story from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Hands
- simple
- Movement
- Walks on legs
- Other details
- Per the atlas record's Kawasaki Robotics blog source (not re-opened this pass; the site returned HTTP 403): curved covers, a display face with animated eyes, AI question answering and speech-matched gestures developed with Osaka University's Nagai Lab, and a Miraikan event with children.
Lineage
Every Kawasaki Heavy Industries humanoid in order.
Kaleido2017Research- Friends2021Research
Nyokkey2022Prototype
Nurabot2025Pilot use
Kaleido 9 (RHP Kaleido)2025Prototype
Kawasaki Heavy Industries also makes 3 machines. See every Kawasaki Heavy Industries robot
Watch Friends
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Where it is sold or used
- Japan (Kawasaki Heavy Industries)
News
The latest 1, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- RHP Friends gives generative-AI dialogue demo at iREX 2025
Kawasaki demonstrated generative-AI conversation with its RHP Friends humanoid at the 2025 International Robot Exhibition.
MONOist (ITmedia)
Side by side with its peers
Picked by the same rules for every humanoid: another maker’s robot that moves the same way, is at the same stage and does at least one of the same main jobs, first shown within two years. Closer size and price rank higher. Few robots match closely, so these are the nearest matches. How we choose
| Measure | FriendsKawasaki Heavy Industries |  T-HR3Toyota (Partner Robot Division)Same job: care · Both walk · Both research platforms |
|---|---|---|
| First shown | 2021 | 2017-11-21 |
| Status | Research | Research |
| Height | — | 154 cm |
| Weight | — | 75 kg |
| Joints | — | 32 |
| Speed | — | — |
| Payload | — | — |
| Battery | — | — |
| Price | — | — |
Sources
Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.
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