Junichi Urata and Nakanishi wanted to form a team for the Darpa Robotics Challenge, but as University of Tokyo researchers they could not receive funding from a military agency. They left the University of Tokyo and founded SCHAFT, with Nakanishi as CEO and Urata as CTO. More info on their previous research here: JSK

S-One

At the Humanoids 2012 conference in Osaka, Japan, a quick preview of Schaft’s S-One was shown at the end of one of JSK’s presentations. This robot would later go on to get the highest score in the Darpa Robotics Trials.

Google acquired Schaft just a few months before the DARPA Trials. According to rumors, the employees of Schaft were told not to talk to the media and also tried to stop people from taking closeup photos of their robot.

Not much was publicly revealed about the hardware. S-One uses Robotiq’s Adaptive Gripper. S-One also still uses water cooled motors and motor controllers shown below in a photo later taken down from their website.

Google pulled Schaft out of the Darpa Robotics Challenge and there was no news of any kind for three years.

Unnamed bipedal robot

Only shown publicly at the New Economic Summit (NEST) 2016 in Tokyo, this unnamed bipedal robot was Schaft’s last project. The robot uses linear slides instead of a traditional humanoid leg layout. The robot can lift 60 kg and travel over uneven terrain and stairs.

On Nov 15th 2018, Alphabet (Google’s holding company) announced they would shut down Schaft after failing to find a buyer for the company.

GITAI Speech

Nakanishi Yuto currently works at GITAI, a Japanese startup currently developing robots for use in space. On September 23rd, 2021, Nakanishi gave a speech that included footage and photos of not only the unnamed biped, but also a completely different bipedal robot not seen before. The photos show that there were at least fourteen prototypes.

Where are they today?

S-Taro was shown in the JSK lab as of February 2014. As for the hardware made by Schaft, it is most likely deep in the vaults of Google/Alphabet along with all the IP.