If only Japanese kitchens were this big

A new experimental home robot unveiled by the University of Tokyo and partner Toyota Motor is designed to clean floors, clear serving dishes, pick up clothing and do a variety of other drudgery that will surely inspire a robot revolution one day. But can it be anything more than an expensive demo?

The Home Assistant Robot (HAR) moves around on a wheeled base, has six-jointed hands and laser range finders and stereo cameras to understand its environment; a failure detection function helps it learn from its mistakes. The robot can manipulate furniture and is pretty mean with a sponge mop. Unfortunately, ordinary Japanese kitchens are only a quarter the size of the one in the demo photo, so HAR would have to slim down from its 130 kg (286 lbs) to tackle the real world.

Honda took the wraps off Asimo eight years ago now, and last year its lead engineer told me it would be another decade before it goes to market. HAR would not be commercialized for another seven years, according to the research consortium, and my guess is it would be extremely expensive if that ever happens - so maybe the people who could afford one will have really big kitchens.

More HAR pics here.

Spotted: Ancient robot blueprint

This rare manuscript was published in 1796. It contains instructions on how to make karakuri ningyo, the clockwork dolls regarded as Japan's first robots.

I was surprised to stumble upon it at a very interesting place in Nagano called the Matsumoto Timepiece Museum. Opened in 2002, the museum has over 300 classic timepieces including Chinese, British, German and French clocks, marine chronometers, pocket watches, and clocks from Japan's Edo period (1600-1867), known as wadokei. The latter include some rather exotic shaku-dokei (pillar clocks) and candle clocks.

The manuscript is called Karakuri Zui (sometimes read as Kikou Zui) or "Illustrated Machinery." It was written by Hanzo Hosokawa, a mechanical engineer, astronomer and inventor from the domain of Tosa on Shikoku Island. The three-volume treatise details how to make four kinds of wadokei clocks and nine types of karakuri dolls including the famous tea-serving doll. Known as Japan's oldest mechanical engineering manuscript, the book has meticulously written notes on how to dress the dolls in kimono.

In Japan, proper engineering has always looked good - even in 1796.

HAL power suit to be sold in Europe

Robot venture firm Cyberdyne Inc. plans to market its strength-boosting HAL power suit in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe, officials announced Tuesday at its new R&D center in Tsukuba northwest of Tokyo.

The firm plans to begin mass-production of a lower-body version of the Hybrid Assistive Limb this month, and will market the boosters as a healthcare apparatus to hospitals and other care facilities. It aims to open a subsidiary in Denmark in fiscal 2009 and focus on leasing the exoskeleton in northern Europe, which has large populations of elderly like Japan.

A demonstration at the press event marks one of the few times that HAL has been worn by people other than Cyberdyne's usual user, who appears in all the publicity shots. I'd heard that HAL takes an extremely long time to calibrate so that it can pick up muscle nerve signals that can be detected in the skin. The calibration seems a big obstacle to commercialization.

I'd asked Cyberdyne about whether reporters would be allowed to try HAL ahead of mass-production, but was told no. Instead they suggested visiting a new promotional facility, the Cyberdyne Studio, slated to open at the end of this month in a shopping center in Tsukuba. I'd like to see the product being used in real-world situations.


Via Nikkei Net