Robot Museum, we hardly knew ye

Sad news for robot fans: operator Gyrowalk has announced it will close the Robot Museum in Nagoya at the end of the month due to lack of visitors. It was opened a year ago on the strength of the popularity of the robots at the 2005 Aichi Expo, held nearby.

The museum was busy every time I went there. But visitor numbers did not meet the annual 400,000 expected by the company. High overheads were probably a big factor - the place has lots of staff and is located in the expensive Sakae downtown area in Nagoya. It was an excellent museum, though, and had a large retail area, event space and exhibitions gallery featuring a colorful robot chronology wall, rare SF magazines and real robots.

Gyrowalk also runs the RoboCafe robot store in Osaka, but that has shut its doors for the time being. Last I heard it was to reopen following renovations but the closure of the Robot Museum probably means that won't happen.

Gyrowalk's woes show how hard it is to transform robot dreams into profit-making reality. U.S. robot firms like iRobot have generally been more successful at marketing non-industrial robots (like Roomba) than the Japanese because they are so focused on practical applications instead of fantasy. Still, as the first of its kind in the world the museum was a great achievement and a fine tribute to an amazing technology. It's a pity that it went so soon.

Robot dance, robot recyle

This rocking public service announcement from the Japan Advertising Council and NHK features Hiroshima J-pop trio Perfume lending their new single "Polyrhythm" to a good cause - recycling. They seem to be dancing a variation of The Robot along with some humanoid-like backup dancers covered with plastic bottles (known in Japan as PET bottles). The voiceover says "For tomorrow, let's start today." Judging by their singles to date, these techno idols seem keen on mechatronic sounds. The "Polyrhythm" video is online here.