Katsuhisa Ito is a hobbyist who has been creating small robots since 1992. Roughly 10 years later, he got around to building his dream project – his own humanoid – whenever he had the time and money to work on it. Before building SILF H2, Katsuhisa Ito has been creating many small robots, SILF H1 and then SILF H2.
SILF H1
Silf-H1 (the first version) was completed over the course of a year starting in 1998, with Ito working on it in his dining room at home. It stood 22.5cm tall and weighed 430g with its battery. He gave up adding arms (for lack of funds), so it had 14 DOF (2 legs x6, head x2). The head is a CMOS camera.One year after beginning development, the Silf-H1 was completed (November 10th, 1999) and soon it was walking (November 17th).
Three days later it qualified for the expert league at the 20th All-Japan micro-mouse tournament, and the following day won the humanoid leg of the competition. In June, 2000 it won the Robotics Society Award at RoboCup Japan.
SILF H2
After Winnning Award for SILF H1, Katsuhisa Ito began working on a newer model. He named it SILF H2.The SILF H2 is 25.2cm (10 inches) tall, weighs 730g (1.5 lbs), and has 21 DOFs (DC motors). Originally designed to compete in micro-mouse style maze competitions, the H2 has a CCD camera for a head that was ingeniously re-purposed from a mobile phone, which allows it to navigate simple environments.
An undeniable part of the Silf-H2′s charm (besides its agility) is its professional, custom-machined body parts, which put it a cut above the majority of custom-built hobby robots. Ito-san even engineered the camera’s microchip himself, so that it would fit inside the slender head case (which is a modified USB cable dongle).
The Silf-H2 was featured on the cover of Industrial Automation (September 2004 issue) accompanied by two of the most prominent robots; QRIO and Asimo, and won various awards at RoboCup tournaments for its fast walking and jumping capabilities. Katsuhisa Ito has also contributed an article that was included in Handy Book Mechatronics, published in November 2005.
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