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.

Yokohama hosts big bot fest

Yokohama will host a three-day robot extravaganza in October 2008 that will showcase many of Japan's most high-profile machines.

The sensibly titled Robo Japan 2008 will feature Honda's Asimo, Mitsubishi's Wakamaru, Robo-Garage's Chroino and others at Pacifico Yokohama October 11-13. Participants will include 28 companies, seven schools and seven groups. The theme will be "robots in everyday life."

It'll be a fun event for kids, but most of the robots on display have been around since at least the 2005 Aichi Expo.

The face that launched a thousand robots

I recently visited the Osaka Science Museum, where a new working replica of Japan's first modern robot has been put on display.

The quirky machine is called Gakutensoku, and it was originally created in 1928 by a biologist named Makoto Nishimura (pictured below). According to accounts, the massive Buddha-like robot could write Chinese characters, puff out its cheeks as though breathing and look up to the heavens for inspiration. It apparently disappeared while on a tour of Germany in the 1930s.

Here's an excerpt of an article I wrote for the Japan Times on it:

"R.U.R." was staged in Tokyo in 1924; in 1927, Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis" with its evil robot Maria opened overseas; and in Britain and the U.S. respectively, two early mechanical men were unveiled as curiosities.

The former was called Eric and resembled a suit of armor; it could stand up from its seat and relay the voice of a remote operator to "speak" to audiences. Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s Mr. Televox consisted of telephone-switching equipment and a crude cardboard anthropomorphic frame. It was able to activate electrical equipment upon receiving commands made on a whistle.

These early robots in science fiction and reality prompted discussion among Japanese intellectuals. When Nishimura learned that the Mainichi Shimbun would mount an exhibit at the 1928 Kyoto Fair, he suggested building a jinzo ningen (artificial human), as robots were first called in Japan.

But instead of being a synthetic slave worker like Capek's robots, it would be an artistic statement.

Asimo conducts Detroit Symphony

Metrobot squad infiltrates Seoul subway

South Koreans have drawn attention for plans to have a robot in every home by 2010. That faraway goal came a step closer today when the Seoul subway began deploying a small army of service robots called Metrobots to assist travelers.

The humanoid machines can provide information about subway fees, restaurants, tourist attractions and maps in Korean and English. Ten Metrobots are to work at City Hall and nine other transfer stations on the busy Metropolitan Subway system.

What with Japan's Asimo and Korea's Hubo in near-parallel development, I wonder whether this bit of one-upmanship in the robot arms race will see a flood of Wakamaru bots hitting the Tokyo underground.

A steed for Asimo?

BigDog, an amazing robot from Boston Dynamics billed as the "most advanced quadruped robot on Earth," needs a master. I can think of none better than the most advanced humanoid robot on Earth, Asimo.

Natch, since this beast isn't Japanese-designed, it's pretty terrifying. And natch, it's funded by DARPA. It could eat Sony's lovable Aibo for lunch. BigDog's locomotion AI software is impressive and it runs on a gasoline engine! It's designed "with the goal of creating robots that have rough-terrain mobility that can take them anywhere on Earth that people and animals can go."

Drinks at Asimo Cafe

I went to Honda's Tokyo showroom and had the pleasure of being served drinks by its humanoid robot Asimo.

Guests sit at tables in the office lobby equipped with touch-panel displays. There are two Asimos standing by at their charging stations. When they receive an order, they whir to life and bustle about like human waiters.

I selected green tea. Asimo carried out the order flawlessly - receiving a drinks tray from a human staffer, carrying to my table and depositing it, then bowing courteously and moving off. Other guests bowed to Asimo in return.

Perhaps the coolest thing was that it was largely business as usual at the office. Executives were coming and going, receptionists were greeting visitors and not too many people took much notice in the fact that there were two robots waltzing around the room serving tea and coffee.

Honda has always said it wants Asimo to be part of the everyday environment, and this was its most convincing demo yet.

Asimo gets smarter, can work in groups

Just in time for the holidays, here comes the Asimo swarm.

Honda Motor has continued to evolve its humanoid robot Asimo and has equipped it with new smarts that lets it work in groups and for one to take over when another is recharging.

Asimo can now operate in an environment with people as well as other Asimos. Robots working together will wirelessly share data such as battery levels and the closest unit to a given task. Each works autonomously based on the networked information.

Another new AI function allows Asimo to estimate the path of people walking toward it based on their speed and direction and to avoid them by stepping back if necessary.

And when Asimo's battery level falls below a certain level, it will return to its recharging station and power up.

This marks the first Asimo upgrade since 2005. Having solved most major engineering challenges in building a bipedal robot, Honda has been focusing on Asimo's AI skills.

Check out the Honda videos here.

The latest version will be serving refreshments at Honda's Tokyo HQ this month and next. Eggnog, anyone?

Rocket punch!

More on the ongoing Great Robot Exhibition in Tokyo: it has lots of cool exhibits like anime super robot Mazinger Z, above. Check out my Wired News photo gallery - I also have an article in the Japan Times about it and the related show Asimo show.

Humanoid learns to point, bow

A full-size humanoid robot that can communicate with natural human gestures and demonstrate some AI chops has been developed by Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT).

Researchers at the institute's Spoken Language Communication Group say it is the first robot in the world with nonverbal communication skills and multipurpose, high-level functions. The bipedal machine, which stands 155 cm (5 feet) tall, uses its artificial vision system to recognize objects in 3D and learn human gestures such as pointing and bowing, as well as their meaning when performed by others.

The scientists compare this to the way a child learns to communicate. No word yet on what the tin man calls itself.

NICT says it hopes the bot, which looks like an early Asimo prototype, will be used as an everyday caregiver for elderly people in the future as well as a helper robot in natural disasters.

Via Nikkei Net, NICT