Introduction of Kawada Robotics and its Humanoid robots

The Kawada Group primarily focuses on bridge and building design and manufacturing, but through a chance encounter resulting from joint research with the University of Tokyo, we have been conducting research and development on humanoids for 26 years. Today, we have sold over 1,000 upper-body dual-arm robots, NEXTAGE, both domestically and internationally, contributing to factory automation. I will introduce my company and the history of humanoid development at our company.

Yuichiro Kawasumi is a Chief Engineer at Kawada Technologies, Inc., specializing in humanoid software and social implementation. He began his career developing the HRP-2 series with AIST, establishing core humanoid control expertise. This led to the successful spin-out of NEXTAGE, a torso-type robot that transformed high-end research into practical factory automation. Building on this real-world success, Kawasumi recently launched a project to develop next-generation legged robots in late 2025. Returning to his roots in full-body mobility, he aims to pioneer the next era of humanoid automation to solve critical global labor shortages.