Humanoid & robot atlas
WABOT-2
Photo: Waseda University (Ichiro Kato lab) (official image), from humanoid.waseda.ac.jp. Image policy
RetiredSucceeded by Hadaly-2 Japan

Waseda University / JST Moonshot program · research humanoid

WABOT-2

A seated musician robot that read ordinary scores with a camera, played an electronic organ with its fingers and feet, and could follow a human singer. Contemporary TV coverage credited it with 50 degrees of movement run by 80 microprocessors.

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

First robot built to read sheet music and play a keyboard instrument with both hands and feet; Waseda calls it the first milestone towards a 'personal robot'.

Real-world use

Performed at Expo '85 in Tsukuba; in 2026 it was on loan to the National Communication Museum in Melbourne, Australia.

Timeline

First shown
1984
Released
Not yet
Completed at Waseda; shown at Expo '85, Tsukuba

Maker

Waseda University / JST Moonshot programUniversity lab · founded 1882 · Tokyo, Japan

Government research funding through the JST Moonshot programme (amount not stated).

How it stacks up

Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.

  1. WABOT-2Waseda University (Ichiro Kato lab) · 198450
  2. Robonaut 1NASA Johnson Space Center with DARPA · 199743
  3. DB (Dynamic Brain)ATR and JST ERATO Kawato Dynamic Brain Project, hardware by SARCOS · 200030
  4. ASIMOHonda · 200026
  5. ARMAR-IKarlsruhe Institute of Technology (H2T, Tamim Asfour) · 200025
  6. SDR-3XSony (Digital Creatures Laboratory) · 200024
  7. HERMESBundeswehr University Munich (Institute of Measurement Science, Volker Graefe and Rainer Bischoff) · 199722
  8. HOAP-1Fujitsu Automation / Fujitsu Laboratories · 200120

WABOT-2 has more joints than 84% of the 236 other humanoids that publish a joints. Bars show the 7 closest in date.

Joints 50 8200 #39 of 237 · more joints than 84%

Not published by the maker: height, weight, speed, payload, battery, price.

Public attention

A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current humanoids.

  • No Wikipedia article of its own yet
  • 2 news stories 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.

Movement
Stationary · 50 joints
Actuators & motors
DC motors with harmonic drives.
Hands
Five-fingered hands with 14 DoF each.
Sensors & vision
CCD camera to read ordinary sheet music; potentiometers, DC tachogenerators and rotary encoders on joints; it listened to a human singer to follow them.
Compute
Distributed Zilog processors: one 16-bit Z8001 for high-level limb control, two Z8002s for mid-level playing control and 50 8-bit Z8094s, one per joint, for motor control.
Battery & power
No battery; powered from an external supply.
Materials & build
Carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic structure; about 90 kg.
AI & software
Unix OS with control code in C and assembly.
Other details
50 DoF in total (hands 14x2, arms 7x2, legs 4x2); played an electronic organ with fingers and feet.

Named suppliers:Harmonic Drive

Lineage

Every Waseda University (Ichiro Kato lab) humanoid in order.

  1. WABOT-1WABOT-11973Retired
  2. WABOT-2WABOT-21984Retired
  3. No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useHadaly-21997Retired
  4. No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useWABIAN1997Retired
  5. No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useWE-4RII2004Retired
  6. WABIAN-2WABIAN-22006Retired
  7. TWENDY-ONETWENDY-ONE2007Research
  8. KOBIANKOBIAN2009Research
  9. No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useWaseda Flutist Robot WF-4RVI2011Retired
  10. No public photo yetWe only show photos we're allowed to useAIREC (Dry-AIREC)2025Research

Watch WABOT-2

Video: Waseda University 早稲田大学 on YouTube. Plays from youtube-nocookie.com when you press play.

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
Built
1 (research prototype)
Sold or delivered
never sold
Where it is sold or used
Japan; on loan to Australia's National Communication Museum, Melbourne
Customers and pilots
Shown at Expo '85, Tsukuba; on loan to the National Communication Museum, Melbourne (return expected mid-late 2026, per Waseda)

News

The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.

  1. WABOT-2 performs at Expo '85 in Tsukuba

    The keyboard-playing robot was exhibited at the Tsukuba science expo.

    Waseda University
  2. WABOT-2 completed

    Kato's lab finished a 'specialist' robot that read scores and played an electronic organ.

    Waseda University Humanoid Robotics Institute

Sources

Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.

Waseda University The Robots of Waseda: A 50-Year Journey in Humanoid Innovation Waseda University Humanoid Robotics Institute WABOT - WAseda roBOT smoliva.blog Computer Chronicles Revisited 40: Tsukuba Expo '85 Logo: Waseda University, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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