Punyo

Punyo is a soft humanoid robot developed by Toyota Research Institute for whole-body manipulation research, emphasizing safe human-robot interaction in assistive scenarios like aging in place. Its upper body features compliant materials covering hands, arms, and chest, integrated with tactile sensors and air-filled bladders for adaptive stiffness and force sensing during contact-rich tasks. Underneath lies a rigid structure with two precise robot arms, torso frame, and waist actuator, enabling hybrid precision and compliance. Punyo's "paws"—inflatable latex bubbles with internal cameras detecting dot pattern deformations—facilitate gripperless grasping of bulky objects by hugging to the torso or slinging onto shoulders. Trained via teleoperation, diffusion policy learning from demonstrations, and example-guided reinforcement learning, it handles groceries, furniture, dishwashers, and doors. With a wheeled base for mobility, ROS2 support, and focus on household chores, Punyo prioritizes safety, dexterity, and natural movements over rigid manipulation.