Tokyo Robotics
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Last reviewed
May 11, 2026
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v3 · 2,344 words
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Tokyo Robotics Inc. is a Japanese robotics company founded in January 2015 by Yoshihiro Sakamoto and Yuki Matsuo, specializing in the development of torque-controlled humanoid robots, dexterous robotic hands, and force-controlled manipulation hardware. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, the company produces the Torobo humanoid robot and the Torobo Hand, designed for research, manufacturing, logistics, and service applications. Tokyo Robotics' approach centers on high-performance torque sensing and impedance control throughout the robot's body, enabling safe and skillful task execution. As of July 1, 2025, Tokyo Robotics became a wholly owned subsidiary of Yaskawa Electric Corporation, one of the world's largest industrial robotics manufacturers.[1][2]
Tokyo Robotics was founded on January 21, 2015 by Yoshihiro Sakamoto and Yuki Matsuo. Sakamoto holds a Ph.D. from Waseda University (2013), where he conducted research on indoor positioning using GPS-compatible signals for robot navigation. The company traces its origins to research conducted in Professor Shigeki Sugano's laboratory at Waseda University's Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, a group well known for its decades of work on human-symbiotic anthropomorphic robots such as TWENDY-ONE.[3] Sugano serves as a technical adviser to the company. He is a fellow of IEEE, JSME, RSJ, and SICE, and has published more than 500 technical papers and holds over 20 robotics patents.[1]
The company was established to commercialize advanced torque-controlled robotics technology for both research and industrial applications. Initial capital was 14.04 million yen, including reserves.[4]
In 2017, the company released the original Torobo Arm, a 7-axis robotic arm with torque sensors on every joint and open source software, aimed at academic robotics research. It was followed by the more compact Torobo Arm Mini in 2018, a smaller research-grade cooperative robot powered at 24 VDC and equipped with direct teaching and contact-stop safety.[5]
In the same year, the Torobo Arm received the Excellent Product Award from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME). In 2018, the system was further recognized with a Jitsuyoka Tech Award from the Robotics Society of Japan.[1]
On January 21, 2020, Yamaha Motor announced a technology and investment partnership with Tokyo Robotics, in which Yamaha purchased convertible bonds issued by Tokyo Robotics and committed to joint development. The amount was not publicly disclosed, although later reporting placed Yamaha's investment at roughly $1.3 million. Yamaha framed the deal as its entry into the collaborative robot (cobot) market, citing Tokyo Robotics' strength in joint flexibility and force control as complementary to Yamaha's manufacturing capabilities.[4][2]
In 2020, the company also released Torobo-kun, a smaller humanoid research robot with dual 6-axis arms and a 2-axis waist and neck, all torque-instrumented. In 2021, it shipped a wearable motion-capture teleoperation rig and the Torobo Eye SL40 3D camera. The SL80 version of Torobo Eye followed in October 2022, and the company began licensing its 3D vision technology to other firms from November 2022.[5][6]
In 2022, the full-body Torobo humanoid platform was honored with the Excellence Award (R&D category) at the 10th Robot Award, the biennial competition organized by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The Robot Award is the country's most visible public recognition for robotics innovation and commercialization.[6][1]
In September 2023, Tokyo Robotics announced a research collaboration with NTT Communications on remote force control for humanoid robots, focused on data center maintenance and remote operation use cases. In December 2021, the company received investment from Igarashi Electric Works, and in March 2023 it received an angel investment from Masaki Yamamoto, the founder of Chatwork.[6]
In 2024, the company won the Grand Prize at the 5th IP BASE AWARD, an intellectual property award organized by Japan's Patent Office, with CEO Sakamoto winning the Top Prize in the Startup category.[6]
On June 10, 2024, the company released a new generation of the Torobo humanoid and an upgraded Torobo Hand. In July 2024, Tokyo Robotics launched Torobo Puppet, a puppet-style teleoperation rig used to record demonstration data and to remotely drive the humanoid. Later that year, on October 25, 2024, simulation models for the Torobo Hand were open-sourced.[6]
In early 2025, Tokyo Robotics released a public demonstration of the Torobo platform autonomously wiping a tabletop using Deep Predictive Learning, a recurrent neural network method developed jointly with Waseda's Sugano laboratory. The demonstration showed the robot smoothly cleaning a surface without explicitly programmed cleaning trajectories.[7]
On October 3, 2025, Yaskawa Electric announced that it had acquired Tokyo Robotics in full. The transaction took effect on July 1, 2025, and made Tokyo Robotics a wholly owned subsidiary of Yaskawa, although the price was not disclosed. Yaskawa president Masahiro Ogawa described the deal as a way to acquire technology that Yaskawa lacked in-house, to shorten development cycles for advanced actuators, and to push the resulting robots into practical use within a few years.[2][8]
On April 2, 2026, Tokyo Robotics released its first public bipedal humanoid demonstration, showing a prototype capable of human-like walking, dynamic push recovery (maintaining balance when shoved), and high-fidelity whole-body teleoperation through a VR headset and motion trackers. Control policies were reportedly trained using large-scale parallel reinforcement learning in physics simulators including MuJoCo and NVIDIA Isaac Sim. The release marked the company's move from a wheeled, upper-body platform into the bipedal humanoid race.[9]
In 2026, the company was selected for the BEYOND AWARD by Business Insider Japan.[6]
| Role | Person | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Founder, President and CEO | Yoshihiro Sakamoto | Ph.D., Waseda University, 2013; over 15 years in robotics and positioning |
| Co-founder, Director | Yuki Matsuo | Co-founded the company in 2015 with Sakamoto |
| CPO and CTO | Hiroaki Arie | Ph.D.; former researcher at RIKEN and Waseda University; cognitive robotics and autonomous vehicle background; joined August 1, 2023 |
| Technical adviser | Shigeki Sugano | Professor at Waseda University; IEEE, JSME, RSJ, SICE fellow; over 500 papers and 20 patents |
The company has remained relatively small by global standards, employing several dozen engineers. Its operations are based in central Tokyo, with prototyping and manufacturing carried out in Japan.[1]
The Torobo humanoid robot is Tokyo Robotics' flagship platform. The current generation, released in June 2024, is a wheeled, dual-arm humanoid built for advanced manipulation research and selected industrial pilots.[10]
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Height | 1,615 mm |
| Weight | ~120 kg (some integrated configurations approach 160 kg) |
| Cart width | 590 mm |
| Arms | 7-axis dual arms |
| Waist | 3-axis (pitch, pitch, yaw) |
| Neck | 3-axis (yaw, pitch, roll) |
| Mobile base | 4-axis omnidirectional |
| Single arm payload | 7 kg (worst-case posture) |
| Total payload | Up to 20 kg |
| Maximum base speed | About 1.4 m/s |
| Battery life | Up to 3 hours; supports charging during operation |
Every arm and waist joint includes a torque sensor, enabling force-controlled execution and impedance control across the body.[10]
Torobo's optional head package includes:
| Sensor | Type |
|---|---|
| Stereo camera | Wide-angle |
| Fisheye camera | 360-degree coverage |
| Depth camera | Time-of-Flight (ToF) based |
| Microphone | Stereo |
| Speaker | Built-in |
The robot includes a standard onboard PC for whole-body control, with an optional second PC equipped with an NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU (later configurations cite RTX 5070) for AI inference, perception, and learning.[10]
Torobo's software stack is built on ROS (Robot Operating System) and includes:
Public simulation models for Torobo and Torobo Hand are released on the company's GitHub organization, allowing external researchers to develop and verify controllers before transferring them to hardware.[5][10]
Tokyo Robotics also produces the Torobo Hand, a dexterous robotic hand designed for manipulation research and applications. The hand features torque-controlled fingers for compliant grasping. In 2026, the company released a Four Finger version 1 model with 10 degrees of freedom, built around what the company describes as the world's smallest cycloid reduction gear.[5]
Launched in July 2024, Torobo Puppet is a puppet-style teleoperation device. An operator manipulates a small mechanical analog of the humanoid, and the full-size robot mirrors those motions in real time. The system is used both for live remote operation and to record demonstration data for training imitation learning policies.[6]
Torobo Eye is a compact 3D vision module that uses structured-light measurement. The SL40 was released in January 2021 and the SL80 in October 2022. Tokyo Robotics began licensing the underlying 3D vision technology to external manufacturers in November 2022.[6]
Tokyo Robotics has shipped or piloted several other systems that broaden its product line beyond the flagship Torobo platform.[5]
| Product | Year | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Torobo Arm | 2017 | 7-axis research robot arm with torque sensors and open source software |
| Torobo Arm Mini | 2018 | Compact 24 VDC collaborative research arm |
| Precise Omni | 2016 | Omnidirectional mobile base with geared floor engagement to avoid slippage |
| Torobo-kun | 2020 | Smaller humanoid research robot with dual 6-axis arms and torque sensors |
| Mobile Gripper | 2021 | Logistics robot for handling open-top plastic containers |
| Tolon | 2022 | Mobile manipulator for narrow spaces, with asymmetrical arm design |
| Togrus | 2023 | Mobile surveillance platform for data center monitoring |
| Torobo GTC | 2024 | Logistics solution targeting goods-to-cart workflows |
| Toala | n/a | Dual-arm system using current-based torque detection instead of dedicated torque sensors |
Tokyo Robotics' core technological differentiator is its approach to torque sensing and impedance control throughout the entire robot body. Every joint in the Torobo platform includes torque sensing, enabling:
This emphasis on joint flexibility was the basis of the Yamaha Motor partnership in 2020, which framed Tokyo Robotics' force control as the missing piece for higher-performance cobots.[4]
Tokyo Robotics has implemented Deep Predictive Learning on the Torobo platform in collaboration with Sugano's group at Waseda. The method is a recurrent neural network approach in which the robot predicts the sensory consequences of its actions one step ahead and uses the prediction error to refine motor commands. It allows Torobo to perform smooth, contact-rich tasks such as table wiping without explicit task programming and without coding individual cleaning trajectories by hand.[7]
In April 2026, Tokyo Robotics demonstrated reinforcement-learning-driven bipedal walking capabilities, including a human-like gait, dynamic push recovery, and whole-body teleoperation. The control policies were trained in parallel simulation environments based on MuJoCo and NVIDIA Isaac Sim, then transferred to hardware. The demonstration marked the company's move beyond wheeled mobile bases into legged humanoids and signaled its participation in the global race for general-purpose humanoid robots.[9]
Tokyo Robotics has received support from a mix of government programs, private investors, and strategic partners.
| Date | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| January 21, 2015 | Founded | Bunkyo, Tokyo; initial capital 14.04 million yen |
| 2015, 2017, 2019 | Shinjuku City Office grants and SME Agency support | Public funding for early R&D |
| January 21, 2020 | Yamaha Motor partnership and convertible bond investment | Entry of Yamaha Motor into the cobot market |
| December 16, 2021 | Investment from Igarashi Electric Works | Strategic investor |
| March 31, 2023 | Investment from Masaki Yamamoto (Chatwork founder) | Angel investment |
| July 1, 2025 | Acquired by Yaskawa Electric Corporation | Became a wholly owned subsidiary; price undisclosed |
The company's customer base includes major Japanese industrial firms such as Sony, Panasonic, and Waseda University, alongside several other universities and research institutes.[9]
Torobo and the broader Tokyo Robotics product line are deployed across several domains: