Robot bed transforms into wheelchair

Panasonic's new robotic bed transforms into a wheelchair, allowing the elderly or people with disabilities to get up without assistance. It's also perfect for very lazy people who just don't want to get up in the morning.

You can stay in the bed while it turns into a wheelchair. Half of the mattress rises and half lowers while a motorized unit beneath it automatically slides out from the bed.

In chair mode, the robot detects people and obstacles and helps users avoid collisions.

The bed's futuristic robotic canopy automatically rises when the unit transforms. It has a screen that acts as TV, controller for home appliances, and home security camera viewer.

Other new mobility solutions to help the aging Japanese population stay mobile include Rodem, an ergonomic electric wheelchair, Toyota's thought-controlled wheelchair, and the Hybrid Assistive Limb, a robotic power suit.

Panasonic is showing off its Robotic Bed this month at the International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition 2009 at Tokyo Big Sight.

Giant robot comes to life at night

Pink Tentacle has some amazing shots of the recently built giant Gundam robot in Shiokaze Park in Tokyo's Odaiba. The 35-ton, 60-foot model robot marks the 30th anniversary of the popular Gundam franchise and can emit all sorts of nifty lights.

Autonomous mini car to go on sale

Tokyo-based robot venture firm ZMP, known for its slick-looking Nuvo robot, is putting a mini robot car on sale that can autonomously avoid obstacles in its path.

The car is about a tenth the size of a real car and will be sold for R&D applications starting this month for around $5,000 (about twice as much with the stylish shell). It has a CCD camera and an infrared laser system to detect obstacles. It can also be controlled with a remote, and runs for about an hour when fully charged.

Is Japanese technology past its prime?

Japanese electronics makers are hemorrhaging red ink. Overseas competition (Samsung and LG) is intensifying, the domestic labor pool is shrinking and consumption is limp. Are Japan's glory days as a technological powerhouse over?

That's the question posed by this insightful article by David McNeill in The Independent quoting yours truly. Yes, it's amazing to see how much Sony, whose first product was a rice cooker that didn't work, is struggling amid these tough times.

The article highlights the fact that Japan is essentially a hardware-oriented culture. It's no surprise that the Internet was not created in Japan, and that the most recent popular electronics that make use of it are not Japanese. Are Japanese manufacturers destined to fade away due to the old cliche that Japanese lack "groundbreaking creativity"?

I don't think so. Japan is a very creative, imaginative society, as anyone who's studied it to any extent can attest. There are many factors that limit the spread of successful, innovative Japanese products, some social or structural and others economic. Besides, the products that are gaining market share may not have a Japanese brand on the outside, but often have Japanese technology on the inside, as McNeill notes:

Toshiba, for example, manufacturers the mini hard drive that powers the iPod, Japanese companies monopolize the production of semiconductor-grade silicon, and make much of the optical fiber and laser diodes that form the backbone of the internet; Nikon and Canon supply many of the optical machines that print lines on computer chips, and so on.

I think the death of Japanese manufacturing has been greatly exaggerated.

Recession? Not in robot land!

The recession hasn't killed Japanese robots - far from it! Two new robot shops have just opened in Tokyo, bringing the total to five. Both sell robot kits aimed at hobbyists who compete in tournaments as well as toys, videos and books. I checked them out the other day.

Vstone Robot Center is in the Akihabara electronics district, steps away from Akihabara Station. It's backed by Osaka-based machine parts firm Vstone and has two colorful humanoid robots on display. Manager Hideki Idaka (right) says the company opened the store regardless of the recession because parents and kids want robot kits. Its most popular product? Robovie-X, a bipedal kit robot that goes for about $700.

Located north of Akihabara Station along the JR tracks, Technologia just opened a few days ago; they still have congratulatory bouquets everywhere. It sells kit robots made by Kondo, Kyosho and other manufacturers as well as robot carrying cases and a ton of other goods. I was lucky enough to run into veteran robot tournament fighter Dr. GIY (left), who proudly showed me one of his lethal-looking creations while checking out the new shop.

Geek trivia:
Reports in Western media including the Associated Press have incorrectly stated that Vstone Robot Center is the only robot retailer in Tokyo.

Wrong! The two new shops bring the total to five, the other three being RT Corp., Tsukumo Robot Okoku (reopening this month following renovations) and Kondo Robo Spot.

Random sighting

Phone booth outside Nakano Station, Tokyo.

U.S., Japan go separate ways in robots

Here's an excerpt from an article I wrote for The Japan Times based on my interview with PW Singer, author of a provocative new book about U.S. military robots, Wired For War.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like the MQ-1 Predator, developed by California-based General Atomics, circle the skies of Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan gathering intelligence and taking out targets with Hellfire missiles. Tireless and devoid of emotion, UAVs have proven remarkably effective.... So comprehensive is the automation of the military that, under the $230 billion Future Combat Systems program, brigades will have more unmanned vehicles than manned vehicles by 2015.

The United States is creating a grand robotic army.

"Military robots are an even more revolutionary technology than the atomic bomb," says Singer. "The robotics revolution in war has a critical difference — it affects the 'who' of war, not only the warriors' experience, but the very identity of the warriors themselves."

Life-size Gundam coming to Tokyo

Besides Godzilla, there's one more big "g" known throughout Japan and I'm not talking about gomi. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Gundam anime franchise, and a life-size, 60-foot model of the RX-78-2 star robot will touch down in a Tokyo park to mark the occasion.

The giant bot will tower over groveling fans of the space opera in Shiokaze Park in Odaiba, an artificial island on Tokyo Bay, in July and August. Light and mist will emanate from the fiberglass statue, which will have a moving head. Far more impressive than the replica of the Statue of Liberty that stands nearby. Perhaps a duel is in order.

via New York-Tokyo

Robot fish to sniff out pollution

The first school of autonomous robotic fish designed to detect pollution around the world will soon be released into the ocean, according to BMT Group. The robot carp developed in the UK are equipped with "tiny chemical sensors to find the source of potentially hazardous pollutants in the water, such as leaks from vessels in the port or underwater pipelines."

The fish will be released off northern Spain. They'll report on pollution via wifi when returning to their charge station - operating time is about 8 hours.

"While using shoals of robotic fish for pollution detection in harbours might appear like something straight out of science fiction, there are very practical reasons for choosing this form," said Rory Doyle, senior research scientist at BMT Group.

"In using robotic fish we are building on a design created by hundreds of millions of years' worth of evolution which is incredibly energy efficient. This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end."

TV show gets robot mascot

Tokyo model maker Kyosho has unveiled a new robot based on its popular Manoi PFO1 kit. Posuto-kun (Little Postman) is a machine mascot for a Japanese TV show whose name is so long it leaves one breathless.

The MBS TV show is called Chikyu Kando Haitatsunin Hashire! Posutoman Run! Postman Run! and it's about celebrities who are charged with delivering mail overseas.

Posuto-kun comes with over 30 original motions and may hit stores between February and March, with a price tag of $3,500.

Via Robot Watch

Steampunk China farm bot making headlines

PLEN maker Akazawa goes bust

Systec Akazawa Co., a key player in the Osaka robot scene and maker of the PLEN desktop hobby robot, has gone bust.

The aircraft parts manufacturer is set to declare bankruptcy with liabilities of about 700 million yen ($7.4 million), according to Nikkei Net, which cited a sharp decline in orders.

The company has apparently ceased operations, and its website is offline. The family-run firm was headed by President Ryohei Akazawa, known for his involvement with RoboCup champions Team Osaka. The team won the RoboCup championship in its division five times.

In 2006, the company introduced PLEN, a $2,600 Bluetooth-controlled hobby bot that could rollerskate and skateboard. There was no word about how the bankruptcy will affect users on the PLEN website.

PLEN won't be the first robot to be hit by hard economic times (q.v. Sony's Qrio), but Akazawa's collapse will hit the Osaka scene hard. I expect other robot ventures to succumb to the recession as well.

Via Nikkei Net

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.

New robot anime stamps on sale

Japan Post today released its latest edition of stamps featuring robots from popular anime series.

The stamps show characters and robots from manga and anime series Patlabor, which deals with a Tokyo police division that uses huge mecha robots for law enforcement. The mecha feature the designs of Yutaka Izubuchi, who also did the exterior design for the HRP robot series being developed by the government.

JP is issuing 15 million Patlabor stamps in denominations of 80 yen that come in 10-stamp sheets.

The issue is part of JP's Anime Heroes and Heroines series that began five years ago with stamps honoring perennial robot icon Astro Boy.

Others include Gundam, Doraemon and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Karakuri clockwork dolls, the ancestors of modern Japanese robots, have also been celebrated with Japanese stamps.

Check out the Japan Post anime series page here (in Japanese).

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.

Quest for practical robots

A recent article in Newsweek quotes me as saying that Japanese are too in love with robots.

It's a point that is seldom discussed - while U.S. firms like iRobot have turned out hit mass-consumer products such as Roomba that are pragmatic, Japanese companies are still obsessed with building bipedal machines that are very cool but pretty useless.

It's the Astro Boy complex at work. The idea of building a humanoid robot just like the machines of science fiction makes for some very slickly designed robots, but many are marketplace failures.

As the article points out, it's no surprise that Roomba the robot vacuum cleaner has sold over 3 million units, but Mitsubishi Heavy Industries sold only a few dozen of its humanoid communication robot Wakamaru. Granted, the latter was over one hundred times more expensive.

But Japanese engineers are learning that things called "robot" should be practical too. Earlier this month, Toyota unveiled its Winglet electric scooter, similar to a Segway and incorporating robotics technology from Sony's Aibo lab. The automaker calls it "a personal transport assistance robot." Toyota's other robots include a band of humanoid musicians - impressive but nowhere near practical yet. The Winglet, though, is a brilliant fusion of design and functionality.

New soccer robot unveiled

Team Osaka, a group of robot-related concerns, has unveiled a new soccer-playing humanoid robot that will compete in the RoboCup tournament opening this week in Suzhou, China.

Vision Vgos stands 455 mm (18 inches) tall, has 21 degrees of freedom (moving joints) and is covered with a soft material to absorb shocks. The exterior was designed by Tomotaka Takahashi of Robo-Garage in Kyoto.

The bipedal bot boasts faster reflexes, better dribbling skills and better responsiveness during play than its predecessors. Team Osaka has been developing the little footballers since 2003, winning several championships in RoboCup. There is a clip of Vision going up against German robots in 2007 here; those are significantly faster and more coordinated than when I saw them in 2005!

The goal of RoboCup is to create a team of soccer-playing robots that can beat the best humans in the sport by 2050.

Tickle-me Tichno

Osaka robotics startup Vstone and Japan Remote Control Co. recently unveiled a kid-sized robot called Tichno that can play soccer, albeit slowly, balance on one leg and do calisthenics.

It came out a winner at the RoboCup Japan Open in Numazu last month.

At 130 cm tall (4.2'), Tichno is designed to be the same size as a third-grade Japanese elementary school student. It weighs 26 kg (56 lbs) has 22 degrees of mechanical freedom. He also has newly developed knee servo motors for exceptional stability. It has the same controller as Vstone's Robovie-X tabletop humanoid and can be manipulated with a gamepad.

Vstone plans to equip the bots with voice-recognition technology and sell them to companies as marketing gimmicks. They'll be available for rental at a daily fee of around $5,000.

Via Robot Watch

Asimo conducts Detroit Symphony

Fujitsu robot learns to cook

Fujitsu's humanoid robot HOAP-3 can do lots of nifty tricks like write its name and do acrobatics, but now it can add cooking to its repertoire.

Sylvain Calinon and other researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland have used imitation learning and probabilistic models to teach HOAP to help make omelets. Through direct human guidance, it learns to whip eggs, cut ham and grate cheese, focusing on the most essential part of each task and ignoring irrelevant events. It automatically adapts when a mixing bowl is moved.

As the longer video below shows, the silky-voiced HOAP recognizes objects through visual markers, and researchers answer its queries with a Wii remote. They also curse it when it screws up!

Foolishly, the researchers armed the robot with a sharp knife - but they survived the experiment.

The HOAP cooking show is part of the European Commission's Cogniron project to create helpful humanoids. HOAP, or Humanoid for Open Architecture Platform, was designed as a research platform and was marketed back in 2001.

Farmer hails strawberry-picking robot

Oldster farmers in Japan face increasingly tough times - few younger Japanese are willing to go into agriculture, and finding a successor to help out on the farm can be very difficult.

So robots are being developed as power suits - and as fruit pickers.

In Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, venture firm Romobility Youto is working on a robot that can perform the labor-intensive task of picking strawberries, and at least one farmer is enthusiastic, Nikkei Net reports.

The robot moves through a greenhouse scanning the strawberries with its color-sensitive camera eye.

When it detects a ripe one, its arm reaches out to cut the fruit and place it on a tray. Ambient light doesn't affect performance.

"Measuring... Oh, I found one. Starting to pick," Nikkei quoted the machine as saying. It's still pretty slow, picking only one berry every ten seconds.

Still, the farmer who owns the greenhouse was sanguine.

"Strawberry harvesting requires a great deal of both time and labor as delicate differences in color must be identified with the naked eye," Nikkei quoted him as saying. "If it is reasonably priced, I will consider buying one."

Romobility aims to commercialize the machine in two years.

There's a video if it in action here.

Source: Nikkei Net

Swinging robot video

Someone's been programming a KHR-series robot kit to swing, demonstrating how practical they can be!

Drinks maker giving away robots

Major Japanese brewer Suntory is giving away free robots - one hundred Roomba 570 vacuum cleaners from iRobot as well as a thousand of these cute little original tabletop bots it calls Zerobo. The giveaway is to promote the relaunch of Suntory's Dakara health drink.

Zerobo, named for the zero sugar, calories and salt in Dakara, is pretty nifty for a freebie. It uses infrared sensors and bumpers to detect obstacles and differences in surface levels. It can do light vacuuming in a random pattern like Roomba and respond to voice commands. You can Zerobo saying "Good morning" and other Japanese words on this site.

Another prize is a Dakara-shaped vacuum cleaner that fits in the palm of your hand. Powered through a USB connection, it can be used to clean your PC keyboard.

Toshiba unveils infrared bot

Toshiba has announced a prototype tabletop robot called Apri Poko that can operate household appliances like TVs via remote control. It's designed to be an all-purpose controller with cute looks.

When you operate appliances with infrared remotes, this 27 cm-tall cousin of Toshiba's ApriAlpha can detect the beams and learn to associate them with whatever they operate.

If it detects an unknown beam, it will ask you what it does, and then remember that function based on your voice response. After that, all you have to do is tell it to "Turn on the TV," and it will do the job itself.

It also has a head cam that helps it recognize users. Toshiba plans to commercialize Poko in the future, but no word yet on a date or price.

via RobotWatch

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.

Robot Detective!

Tonight Japan's channel BS2 aired a golden oldie from the vault: Robotto Keiji (Robot Detective), a short-lived 1973 tokusatsu series based on the manga by Shotaro Ishinomori about a robot crime-fighter. It predated Robocop by more than a decade.

Protagonist K is a quite a dandy for a humanoid, sporting a beret, yellow shoes and a red jacket. He drives a flying car and packs a gun mounted in his chest, handy when tussling with the Badou crime syndicate.

K fights ridiculous evil robots like Lockerman, a walking locker, and Springman...um, a giant spring. There's a great rundown of the rogue's gallery this fansite.

The funny thing about tough guy K, though, is that in times of distress he calls out "Mazaa!" (mother) and runs off to a giant mobile fortress in the shape of a goddess for repairs. His creator is a female scientist, Dr. Kirishima, who fixes him up in the fortress.

Mother complexes, human-machine relations, bargain-basement tokusatsu special effects: Robotto Keiji is great fodder for Japanologists of every stripe.

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."

New Aibo rumor groundless: Sony

The blogosphere has been swirling with rumors that Sony is set to revive its much-loved robot dog Aibo next year with a PlayStation-compatible version.

Sony put Aibo to sleep in 2006 when it shut down its robot entertainment business. Earlier this year, Kotaku.com featured an interview with Aibo co-designer Masaya Matsuura that quoted him as saying, "The engineers behind the Aibo are doing the PS3. We are talking about making something like the new Aibo."

Then Stuff magazine apparently published a photo of the new "Aibo PS" in development and alleged it would be compatible with the PS3, PSP and WiFi. Numerous sites like Engaget and Gizmodo repeated the news.

Sounds great, but it seems no one bothered to call Sony to check.

Well, I did. The company's Tokyo headquarters says the rumor is entirely groundless and it is "definitely not" working on a new Aibo. The Sony spokesperson laughed when he saw the pic from Stuff magazine. (I think that pup looks way too nasty to have been designed by a Japanese company like Sony. It's just not kawaii.)

The whole thing smacks of a hoax. Or hype that got out of hand.
That's Internet journalism for you!

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?

Fiddle me this

Toyota Motor has unveiled its latest awesome robot musician - a violin player. The Toyota Partner Robot is an addition to the automaker's lineup of gigging droids that includes drummers and trumpet players.

The violinist did a rendition of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" in a display that was dexterous but a tad, er, robotic.

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters the Partner robot will have a big role in helping take care of old people as Japan's population ages rapidly. The firm's robot staff of 100 will be doubled and a new robot research center will be built, he added.

Yet Watanabe admitted Toyota is still exploring possible business models for its humanoid robots.

Robots need to be successful products to have any real impact on everyday life. While the violinist is a nice engineering feat, getting it to tidy up a room and do the laundry would be a real breakthrough.

Robots can be weak, too

Tatsuya Matsui is an architect and designer with a passion for robots. His studio Flower Robotics has produced some striking automatons like Posy, a cute little wedding flower girl. Others include a black-clad humanoid clown. His robots are cute but also a little scary.

Matsui's robot aesthetic is partly based on the notion that robots can share weakness and fragility with human beings, and that will endear them to us. That's why he thinks flowers are a metaphor for robots. Cyberdyne Systems this ain't.

He has also created a mannequin robot called Palette that can can swing its arms gracefully to enhance the appeal of clothing placed on it. Palette has already modeled designs by Hanae Mori and Louis Vuitton in Tokyo. Palette is also equipped with a vision sensor so it can mimic the gestures of passersby. The exhibition, at Mito Art Tower in Ibaraki Prefecture through Jan. 27, offered visitors iPods displaying what Palette sees (photo, below).

Matsui has also worked on Pino, a cute little robot used as a humanoid research platform, and SIG, a head used for robot hearing research at Kyoto University. I wrote an article on the latter for Scientific American that's archived here.

Tatsuya seems more concerned with robot design than functionality, but his Flower Robotics is only in its infancy. Meanwhile, he's been designing airliners and swanky buildings in Ginza. Matsui is quite a Renaissance Man.

There's more on the Tatsuya Matsui Flower Robotics exhibition in my Japan Times article here.

Sanyo rover checks for house cracks

A new Sanyo Electric Co. robot can check for cracks in the foundations of homes by crawling through the narrow, inaccessible space under the floorboards.

The treaded robot has a video camera that relays real-time images to a remote location. It can automatically avoid obstacles in its path and can be remotely controlled with a computer mouse.

While the bot would be useful for checking for temblor damage in quake-prone Japan, Sanyo says it will promote the use of homes for longer periods, which a new law calls for to save on resources. Japanese residential buildings are typically torn down after only a few decades of use. Sanyo hopes to sell 1,000 units annually of the robot, which will retail for less than 1 million yen ($8,800), in five years.

Via Kyodo News

Toyota to sell Partner Robots

Toyota Motor has marked the 70th anniversary of its founding by announcing a long-term business plan that calls for the commercialization of its humanoid Partner Robots for jobs like housekeeping and nursing support.

The Toyota Global Vision 2020 plan sees robots as a core business for the leading automaker, which also plans to make hybrid technology available for its entire fleet of vehicles.

There were no details on the timing of the commercialization of the Partner Robots, which debuted as a robot orchestra at the 2005 Aichi Expo in Japan.

Via Mainichi Shimbun

Smallest humanoid a chip off the old block

I-Sobot, a new toy from Takara Tomy, has been launched as the world's smallest humanoid robot in production, certified by Guinness World Records. It's a 165 mm (6.5"), remote-controlled droid that walks, punches, kicks, does gymnastics and plays music. Its interesting features include 17 servo units, a gyro sensor for balance and the ability to recognize 10 voice commands. Not bad for $350.

I-Sobot also has a spoken repertoire of over 200 sound effects, words and cute asides like "I could go for an ice-cold can of STP." Funny, but its ancestor Omnibot from the mid-1980s (i-Sobot's name is actually "Omnibot 17μ i-Sobot") seemed to have more style, at least in the TV ads. He even makes a pass at a vacuum cleaner.

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

Major robot show opens in Tokyo

Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science has just opened a big show entitled "The Great Robot Exhibition: Karakuri, Anime and the Latest Robots," running through Jan. 27 in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

I attended the press preview and was impressed. The organizers have gathered many of the best Japanese robots out there today, and have extensive displays on the background of robot development such as karakuri clockwork dolls and anime icons like Astro Boy.

If you're in town, "Dai Robotto Haku" is worth catching. It's a great retrospective on Japanese robot culture. Highlights include a wall of one hundred "Master Grade" Gundam plastic models, an original 19th-century karakuri archer doll by Tanaka Hisashige and a new stage show by Honda's Asimo, the premier humanoid robot.

If you can't make the exhibition, you might want to buy Loving the Machine instead!

Back-seat driver now front-seat robot

One of the wildest concept cars being shown off at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show starting Oct. 26th is the Nissan Pivo 2 electric car, and it has a few twists. For starters, its wheels can rotate 90 degrees, allowing the battery-powered vehicle to be driven sideways. The cabin can also rotate a full 360 degrees. Those functions obviate parallel parking and the need for a reverse gear. But the Pivo's best trick? It has a robot navigator that speaks English and Japanese.

Nestled in the dashboard, the Pivo bot is none other than NEC's cute PaPeRo, minus its body. PaPeRo was originally conceived as a childcare robot adept at entertaining tots with songs and games, but it has since diversified into wine tasting, and now a Japanese version of KITT. I shudder to think what's next.

This "Robotic Agent" can sense the driver's mental state by analyzing voice and face image data, according to the automaker. Its voice-activated navigation and information system is also designed to soothe stressed drivers through small talk. But for those who like to pound the dashboard in moments of road rage, this "starry-eyed robot-monkey head," as Motortrend described it, might make a convenient punching bag. Fortunately PaPeRo is made of tough plastic!

Gundam-mad bureaucrat busted

A Japanese civil servant in the agriculture ministry was recently reprimanded for ignoring his duties and making 260 edits to the Japanese-language Wikipedia entry on Mobile Suit Gundam, the super-popular animated robot sci-fi series.

"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam," ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura was quoted by AP as saying. He added that other bureaucrats had also modified the Gundam page, and that access to Wikipedia has been blocked from the ministry.

Gundam is a sprawling saga about space colonists who do battle in giant robots. It's also a merchandising phenomenon in Japan. Bandai, the country's largest toymaker, owes most of its revenue to the brand, especially the robot model kits that have sold over 360 million units since 1980.

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.

Dancing bot rocks out in Wired vid

With Tokyo in an intense heat wave, there's nothing like a dancing robot to lift one's spirits from the humid doldrums. This great video from Wired and my roboticist pal Marek Michalowski features the "creature-like" robot Keepon developed at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology's (NICT) Kyoto research center. Developer Hideki Kozima created Keepon as a simple social communication robot with reactive and emotive abilities. Michalowski programmed him. There's more info about Keepon here.

Keepon is also interesting in that he exhibits unpredictable behavior based on sensor input data. Michalowski explained his jig to me thus:

For Keepon, "tempo" is an abstract property that can be perceived in lots of different modalities: sound, vision, accelerometer movement...when he perceives periodic events, he figures out the tempo and synchronizes to that. But his dancing "style" is an emergent property of randomly changing dance "parameters" rather than a scripted set of movements.

Keepon seems right out of Sesame Street or the Muppet Show to me, but this video proves his street cred. I also noticed that it features famous spots in Tokyo such as Tokyo Big Sight, the Kaminarimon Gate of Sensoji Temple, Akihabara's Radio Center Building and Chuo-dori street, Shibuya crossing, and the east side of Shinjuku Station. The final sequence with dancing kit robots like Manoi was filmed at robot retailer and educator RT Corp., also in Akihabara. Wired took liberties with the Tokyo backgrounds, inserting its logo into the visual chaos of neon and concrete.

Super kawaii Keepon rocks. He'll be at the Wired NextFest in LA next month.

Giant robot helps out in quake-hit Niigata

Robot maker tmsuk's giant rescue bot t-53 Enryu is on the scene in Niigata to help clear debris following the massive earthquake that devastated the prefecture last month, killing 11 and destroying over 10,000 buildings. It's the first time that the recently upgraded, scaled-down rescue robot has been dispatched to a disaster area to aid recovery efforts.

The 3-ton treaded monster can lift up to 100 kg (220 lbs) with each arm and has multiple joints and cameras that allow operators finer manipulation than, say, a backhoe. Arm movements have been improved to correspond with operator motions, so people in the cockpit can "move" debris themselves through Enryu. In that sense, the t-53 is like a stripped-down Gundam sci-fi robot.

Via Robot Watch

Do androids dream of old age?

My birthday is April 10, 2017. How long do I live?
-Leon, Blade Runner


What happens when androids get old? Well, it ain't pretty. Basically, they melt.

Of course, "old" comes pretty fast in robotics. Your gorgeous synthetic Actroid companion may be the stuff of your dreams today - but her skin will start to liquefy in about a year.

Before long she'll end up dismembered and rotting in a cluttered basement, like this first-generation Repliee I found at Dr. Hiroshi "Gitchang" Okuno's lab at Kyoto University. When I saw her in such a fallen state, I couldn't help but feel sympathetic.

The Actroid and Repliee series of androids developed in Japan have silicone skin. An insider at developer Kokoro Co. tells me that one of the biggest challenges with Actroids is that their skin decays and dirties quickly. It has to be replaced every year. The process is long and tricky.

The Tokyo-based company is looking into ways to make the skin more durable so Actroid's beauty will linger longer. This will be an important technical obstacle to overcome as androids are expected to start working in everyday jobs like receptionists in Japan, which faces a crippling population decline.

The skin is most prone to melting around the android's hands, arms and legs. The second photo shows Repliee's gnarled hand, which appeared to be slowly melting when I picked it up. Her torso was on a chair, and her legs were on the floor. Her wig was falling off - she was a mess.

Being the Eve of the Repliee series, she needs a more fitting resting place than a lab basement. Maybe the Robot Museum in Nagoya can find a spot for her, a place where she can be beautiful forever. But first she needs a new skin!

Good listeners

Many thanks to those who attended my Loving the Machine reading at Good Day Books in Tokyo recently. I was honored to participate in their Booknotes lecture series - it has hosted such old Japan hands as Donald Keene, Donald Richie and Edward Seidensticker as well as many others. To the right is Good Day's Steve Kott, laughing at the prospect of being replaced by a robot in the future.

Meanwhile, I have an article on how to make robots better listeners in this month's Scientific American. Kyoto University Professor Hiroshi "Gitchang" Okuno is building robots that can listen to three people talking simultaneously and understand them, addressing a fundamental AI problem known as the cocktail party effect. Check it out at your local newsstand!

P.S.: I'll be speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan at the end of August.

Motoman superannuates you

Think you're good at sorting packages? Try going head to head with Motoman. It can sort about a thousand packages an hour - better than most humans. I bet the hapless worker in the background of this photo envies its chops.

In a tie-up between robot producer Yaskawa Electric and distribution machinery maker Hokusho Co., Yaskawa's Motoman DA-10 humanoid robot has been put to work at a Hokusho factory to demonstrate its package-sorting abilities.

Motoman has seven-axis arms and can perform simultaneous tasks like toting objects and tightening bolts. I've seen the DA-10 at a robotics trade show in Tokyo - the head is just a cosmetic accessory added for fun. In fact Yaskawa staff dolled up their humanoid pals with scarves, much the bemusement of onlookers. Here, Motoman is demonstrating its article-handling functions - it can work in close proximity to people and step in when they're not around. It sorts packages by reading their bar codes. But this strikes me as pretty old-school compared to new automated distribution technologies like RFID. I think Motoman should run for office instead.

Via Pink Tentacle

Meet BJ, son of Aibo

Kawasaki-based iXs Research has a new toy that's perfect for Aibo and Doctor Who fans out there: a dog-bot that looks like a cross between Sony's discontinued hound and K-9, the Doctor's companion.

"BJ," seen as a potential successor to Aibo, is designed for robotics research and robot sport tournaments such as RoboCup, where Aibos play soccer.

It has 16 joints in total, an infrared distance sensor, accelerometer, and paw sensors. It can also connect to the Internet and can be programmed with a variety of motions. It has memory stick, USB and other ports. Weighing 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs), BJ is slated to go on sale around the world this fall for around $4,800.

via Robot Watch

Ghost in the machine

These creepy X-rays are imaginary robot skeletons that tmsuk, one of Japan's more playful robot manufacturers, is offering as wallpaper on its website. They feature the tmsukIV humanoid robot and the Banryu T73S robot watchdog. A caption in the wallpaper reads: "Robot-like people cannot make robots."

Here be dragons

I was in the port of Yokosuka southwest of Tokyo recently and dropped by the new Yokosuka Museum of Art, where installation artist Kenji Yanobe's robotic artwork Giant Torayan is on display. Torayan is a fire-breathing sculpture that's the size of a small house.

See how small the museum attendant is in this photo. She's doing the Japanese "X" sign because you're not allowed to take pictures. The huge funnel-like object behind Torayan emits a deafening steamship blast in case you're not intimidated enough by the baby-faced bot. The spikes on the back of its head are a direct reference to comic icon Astro Boy.

Torayan can also move its head and arms a bit. As it says in the ad above, a pyrotechnics display will be held July 14 at the museum, which is about 35 minutes by bus from JR Yokosuka Station. The sculpture is part of a larger Yanobe installation that includes an army of little men wearing yellow Hazmat suits, some riding a ferris wheel. It's all very surreal.

There's a video of Torayan spewing flame and jamming with Tokyo synth band Mas here.

Puppy love, redux

Another robot dog will hit store shelves in Japan in October following the demise of Sony's popular Aibo last year. Sega Toys has announced it will market Mio, a small toy robot dog that can express its "emotions" and respond to petting. It has sensors on its head, chin and back. Mio's eyes will display over a hundred icons to express psychological states. It can also respond to voice with its own "babble," play music and shuffle along. There's a video here.

Retailing for 9,240 yen ($75), Mio is part of Sega Toys' "Dream Pet" line of robotic animals that includes Yume Neko Smile, a lifelike synthetic cat.

Bank on it

From an HSBC ad at Narita Airport outside Tokyo. It was the last thing I saw in Japan before a recent trip stateside where I spoke at the National Academy of Science along with astronaut Mamoru Mori and robot creator Tomotaka Takahashi. HSBC, which calls itself "the world's local bank," clearly knows the Japanese market - many baby boomers would be struck by a natsukashii (nostalgic) feeling when seeing tin toys from the fifties and sixties like this one.

New robot ready for dirty work

The latest humanoid robot unveiled in Japan is nice and shiny but wants to get its hands dirty.

The HRP-3 Promet Mark II is designed to work in tunnels, disaster zones and other dangerous environments. Jointly developed by bridge-builder Kawada Industries, Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and others, HRP showed off its skills tightening bolts and screwing screws. Check out the funky video here - it also drops the driver with studied nonchalance. But then again it only has three fingers.

Rain- and dust-proof, the latest droid in the HRP series (for Humanoid Robotics Project) stands 160 cm (5'2") tall and weighs 68 kg (150 lbs). Mechanically, it is more sophisticated than the HRP-2, with 12 more degrees of freedom for a total of 42. This reflects improved grasping ability, a skill many humanoids in Japan lack. The robot can also operate autonomously or by remote control. Anime mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi (who worked on Gundam, Patlabor and Macross) did Mark II's exterior.

The developers plan to keep improving the HRP series with an eye to commercialization by 2010 at a cost of $80,000-150,000 per unit. Since the project itself grew out of a national scheme to create robots that could operate in Japan's many nuclear power plants, power utilities could be potential customers.

Humanoid for hire

Get your artificial receptionist/valet while supplies last. Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has announced that its humanoid communication robot Wakamaru is now available for rent.

Wakamaru is a sophisticated robot with vision, auditory and touch sensors. The rental project is aimed at businesses, hospitals and events, where the droid will do receptionist and guidance duties. Wakamaru can understand about 10,000 words, retrieve information or emails from the Net with its wireless LAN link, and do a mean upper-body aerobics routine.

The daily rental fee varies according to the lease length. For a lease of 1-5 days, it's 120,000 yen ($970), while 21-30 days is only 20,000 yen ($160). Shipping and management charges extra. The rentals will come with touch panels that can display venue maps and other info.

Oh, baby!

It had to happen - researchers from Osaka University and the Japan Science and Technology Agency have overseen the birth of a robot baby! The bouncing bundle of silicone joy is called CB2, from Child Robot with Biomimetic Body. The team, which includes android wizard Hiroshi Ishiguro and RoboCup cofounder Minoru Asada, created the robot so scientists could learn more about childhood development. There's a video here.

They say CB2 is designed to act like a 1- or 2-year-old human child, with a sophisticated array of air-servo motors beneath its silicone hide and visual, auditory and tactile sensors that allow it to react to its environment in a lifelike fashion. It reacts if tapped on the shoulder or presented with a plaything. Professor Asada was quoted by the Mainichi newspaper as saying ongoing research will focus on improving body functionality so the robot can be integrated into society. The team also wants to teach it how to walk and talk once the necessary software is developed. Another goal is to improve CB2 so that it can play with real children.

At 33 kg (72 lbs) and 130 cm (4'2"), baby is pretty big. In appearance it seems rather uncanny as well, and I believe some would say that this robot falls into the Uncanny Valley. CB2 seems half-alive and half-human, and doubtless will engender a negative response in many people.

But his daddy must be proud of him. Maybe Astro Boy is passing out cigars.

A little vinegar for your choke?

How to get noticed in 2007 if you're an old-timey Japanese condiment maker: build a robot that puts Darth Vader to shame.

What was the Tamanoi Vinegar Corporation thinking when it asked Tokyo-based entertainment firm buildup Co. to construct a Sith-like pitchman?

Well, it seems the robot's appearance was inspired by the company's "black vinegar" products. It will do presentations about them through prerecorded voice and gestures.

Nearly 6 feet tall, the "Tamanoi Vinegar Robot" runs on an air-servo system and has 24 joints. The dusky droid will be hawking Tamanoi's sour stuff at a theater in its Osaka head office starting in July, the 100th anniversary of the firm's establishment.

There's a video of Darth Vinegar here.

Try one with wasabi

I'd like to see this doing the rounds at a kaitenzushi counter.

Its purpose is mysterious, but a fuel cell-powered robot fish has been developed by Osaka City University professor Tomoyuki Wakisaka, Nikkei Net reports.

The prototype moves by swishing its tail with power produced by mixing oxygen with hydrogen in an internal system that makes use of powdered calcium.

The novel approach would allow the little minnow to swim much longer than robot fish powered by ordinary batteries. The professor is also experimenting with magnesium to produce hydrogen to allow it to swim for three hours straight. A practical fuel-cell fish may be ready in two or three years.

Best served fresh.

The Osaka Kid: better, stronger, faster

He's back, and better than ever.

The wizards at Team Osaka, mentioned in an earlier post, have again unveiled an improved version of their champion soccer-playing robot, Vision. The past three versions came out winners in their RoboCup robot soccer tournament category. RoboCup's purpose is to develop a team of robot footballers that can beat the best humans at the sport by 2050 (and then take over the world...maybe).

Vision 4G can run 30% faster than its previous incarnation, its joints have 40% stronger torque, its has a lighter CPU and a new forward-looking camera, in addition to its 360-degree head cam, to better track the ball. There's a cool video of 4G showing off here.

A mechanical bedside manner

More Japanese companies are developing or planning to develop partner robots, especially in the field of medicine, according to a recent survey by Nikkei Inc.

About 56% of of 68 firms surveyed indicated they're in or may enter the partner robot business, up 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier. Medical care and nursing were the top applications, followed by play and entertainment, then receptionists and guides.

For instance, major Japanese security services firm Secom Co. has sold 200 units of My Spoon, a robotic tabletop eating assistant retailing for around 400,000 yen ($3,300). It's designed to help those who don't have use of their arms. While it's taken five years to reach 200, a new financial aid program by the Japanese Federation of Organizations of Disabled Persons may help sales.

Meanwhile, only 22% of the surveyed firms reported operating profit for 2006. High manufacturing costs and safety concerns were cited as the biggest obstacles to profitability. The former is reflected in relatively high per-unit prices for the category, between 500,00 and 1 million yen (about $4,000-8,000).

New must-have toy: Manoi PF01

Remote-control toy maker Kyosho has finally started advance shipping of Manoi PF01, the latest in its athlete humanoid robot series that began with the AT01 model.

Its very stylish exterior, a big nod to doe-eyed characters from anime, was designed by robot boy wonder Tomotaka Takahashi of Robo-Garage. PF01 also boasts 17 degrees of freedom, though it appears a little less rugged than the award-winning AT01. Kyosho has a video of PF01 doing victory poses here.

Kyosho is offering 150 units until regular sales begin in June, price tag: $1,600 (189,000 yen). Today I saw a few boxes at RT in Akihabara, one of eight retailers nationwide, but Lem Fugitt of Robots-Dreams was there to snap pics of the first customers getting theirs.

No doubt PF01 will make waves beyond the robot otaku crowd!

23-foot, fire-breathing robot art

It's three stories tall. It breathes fire. It has a baby's face.

Giant Torayan may be awkward at cocktail parties, but it keeps the conversation flowing. It's certainly one of the most striking pieces of Japanese robot art I've come across.

Sculptor Kenji Yanobe, known for mind-bending installations that incorporate subculture icons, created this titan in 2003 to give kids a thrill. Its "command device," also a baby's head, contains a computer that only responds to children's voices, giving them the reins to a pretty impressive flamethrower. Yanobe calls Torayan "the child's ultimate weapon."

Yanobe's work recently came up in a blog by Robot Museum in Nagoya President Masayoshi Ishiko, who thinks Torayan would be a great ambassador to promote Japanese robot culture in China! Shock and awe indeed.

Ishiko-san has told me about his big plans for robots in Japan on several occasions. Think traveling robot circuses and the like. I hope he branches out to the Tokyo area - his company Gyro Walk also runs the popular RoboCafe in Osaka.

Speaking of Kansai, if Kobe is to get its own giant robot, q.v., Tokyo needs one too. Torayan is perfect.

Machine mascot for commuter millions

I just picked up the latest rechargeable Tokyo transit card, introduced this week. Aside from being the first universal card that gets you onto buses, trains and subways in the Japanese capital, it's noteworthy for having a robot character. Which is pink, natch.

Pasmo, as it's called, can be used on services run by some 60 transport firms in the Tokyo area, including East Japan Railway. It's a contactless integrated circuit card and can be charged with up to 20,000 yen ($170). It can also be used as e-money at retailers like department store giant Tokyu Corp.

The smart card cost operators 140 billion yen in installation costs for the electronic readers and took fifteen months to work out and test. A simulation involving 1.23 billion transit connections was also performed.

So why a robot mascot? The card-issuing company says robots aren't dull inorganic matter, they represent "kindness toward humans" and "convenience." It adds that normally the Pasmobot itself commutes with the card in its pocket, but when in a rush it "transforms into a bus or train." Naturally.

No old-school symbols of locomotion like the greyhound for the Japanese. It's the machine or bust.

Smart vac-bot hits Osaka streets

A new cleaning robot with smarts can recognize objects and people with a laser sensor. The Figla Eye, developed by Tokyo-based glass maker Figla Co., has been put on display in Osaka by local industry group Robot Laboratory to showcase its abilities.

Originally developed in 2004, the Eye can automatically clean every nook and cranny of a room by using a variety of ultrasonic distance sensors to find walls and corners. On a single battery charge it can operate for an hour at full capacity or two hours at reduced capacity.

An on-board camera system allows for remote home monitoring through wireless LAN. It can also wax floors.

The latest model can differentiate between people and inanimate objects, within a radius of several meters, based on shape by using a laser sensor that rotates 10 times per second.

The Eye is designed for use in offices, hospitals, hotels and large public facilities. Figla aims to commercialize it within a year, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper.

Panel trumpets housekeeper bots by 2025

Japan's Innovation 25 Strategy Council, a government panel, sees average Japanese families owning housecleaning robots that talk by 2025, according to a new interim report.

Other wonders that await us: electric vehicles will cruise the streets, automatically dodging obstacles and cleaning the air via artificial photosynthesis, while linear-motor cars will cut travel times between Tokyo and Osaka to 50 minutes, compared to the current 2.5 hours for the bullet train. Oh, and there will be robots on the moon too.

The report also features the hypothetical Inobe family of 2025. They are five people plus a robot called Inobee that is 5 years old. The droid does housework during the day, and later gives a verbal report about his activities to the household's telecommuting mom Yumiko. The Inobes' health, meanwhile, is monitored by home computers.

Sounds pretty fanciful. The Nikkei newspaper has criticized the council, created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for being too vague and offering only rehashed platitudes about the need for greater innovation in Japan as its population ages. The government's powerful Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, though, is to incorporate the report's visions in its 2007 policy goals.

It's nice to know that Tokyo's bureaucrats are rooting for Inobee. No doubt once he masters the art of making his environment look clean, he'll be ready for public service.

Kobe to get 60-foot robot statue

When it comes to monuments, the Japanese know their priorities.

The port city of Kobe could get an 18-meter (60-foot) robot statue as early as spring 2008, according to the Kobe Shimbun and other newspapers. The towering steel monument, the height of a five-story building, would honor Ironman No. 28, a famous manga and anime robot created by Kobe native Mitsuteru Yokoyama in the late 1950s and known as Gigantor overseas. The statue would be about the same height as the juggernaut in Yokoyama's wild stories.

The colossus, fists raised in the air, would greet passengers coming out of JR Shin-Nagata Station in the city's Nagata Ward. A local business group, Kobe city and the central government are backing the amazing project, which is expected to be a symbol of the neighborhood's rebirth following its devastation by the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and is expected to attract visitors. The construction cost for the statue is around 135 million yen ($1.1 million).

There's a TBS TV report on it here.

My book discusses the importance of Ironman No. 28 in the evolution of Japanese robots. Yokoyama was inspired by the terrifying attacks of the gigantic American B-29 Superfortresses that laid waste to Kobe during World War II. In the manga series, the Japanese military builds Ironman No. 28, a mindless hulk controlled with a handheld box, as a last-ditch secret weapon to save the Empire. It later falls into the hands of boy detective Shotaro Kaneda, who uses it to fight an international criminal gang. The first major series in the giant robot genre, it inspired countless other manga and anime series as well as a universe of toys and other merchandise. Ironman No. 28 was also made into radio shows, TV series and films including a 2005 live-action movie.

Yokoyama's mechanical behemoth looking up into the Kobe sky, as if to rebuke the invading bombers, should make quite a sight.

It's a little monster

Brilliant ad inspired by Japanese giant robot/monster classics. It's in a genre with fab videos like Polysics' "Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto" and Beatie Boys' "Intergalactic." Pepto-Bismol even got in on the action.

Makes me want to stomp Tokyo.

Powersuits for all

Classy. But can it tango?

Those who fear the rise of robots and artificial intelligence have just gotta love one project in Japan that hits all the right buttons - Tsukuba University Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai's efforts to commercialize a strength-enhancing robotic suit.

The product name: HAL. The company: Cyberdyne.

Coincidence? Perhaps. Regardless, Sankai's robosuit, which boosts arm and leg power in response to user brain signals, just jumped closer to commercialization thanks to a 1 billion yen capital injection from major Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House Industry Co. The company took a 15% stake in Cyberdyne, a venture set up by Tsukuba U. and helmed by the good professor.

They plan to start mass production with annual output of 400 HAL suits, which are designed to help elderly Japanese stay mobile and independent longer. Wearers can tote objects weighing over 20 kg, no sweat, but they can't leap tall buildings yet. The suits would be available for rent or purchase, with a possible price tag of about 500,000 yen, or $4,200. Daiwa House is also planning HAL classes at its fitness club and even special HAL homes for wearers, according to Nikkei News.

I can already see newly young oldsters partnering up for another servo waltz.

HAL-lelujah.

Robocandy

This, gentle reader, is robot omiyage.

Omiyage are souvenirs, a de rigueur gift for colleagues if you're a salaryman on a business trip. They're usually chocolates and the like.

Never little robot buns...until now.

Thanks to the new Robot Museum in Nagoya, which I finally visited. The organizers really did their homework and have put together a very impressive multimedia chronology of famous anthropomorphic machines fictional and real, from Hadaly of Tomorrow's Eve to Honda's Asimo and beyond. A highlight of the gallery is the actual Wabot 1, the first full-sale humanoid robot, developed in 1973 by Prof. Ichiro Kato of Waseda University.

The place is more than a museum. There's also an event space that accommodates visiting robots, as well as a large "robot department store" on the ground floor. Everything robotic, from toys and robot kits to t-shirts and candies, is on offer. Thousands of customers throng the aisles on weekends; a good chunk of them are gaijin.

The manju bun above is part of a slew of Robot Museum merchandise for sale. Comes in this here package.

The taste? Milky-sweet, with a touch of silicon.

Getting cuddly with Actroid

He has created the perfect woman. Her only flaw: she isn't human.
- Star Trek, "Requiem for Methuselah"

On a recent visit to robot maker Kokoro, I got a backstage tour of the magic and spent some quality time with their lovely lady android, mentioned in an earlier post. Actroid is a synthetic female, ultra-lifelike in appearance and movement. I'd seen her several times at various events, but at Kokoro I got to get up close and kick the tires, as it were.

Actroid is designed to work as a receptionist or emcee. The receptionist version sits in a sensor-laden booth and can answer questions in four languages, almost like a fortuneteller. Four receptionist Actroids gave directions to visitors at the 2005 Aichi Expo in Japan. The latest emcee version, Actroid DER2, stands on a platform, generally looks gorgeous and introduces stage acts. She's equipped with 46 servomotors and a repertoire of sassy comments, like "Please don't touch me -- it's sexual harassment!"

Never one to take "no" from an android, I squeezed the Charmin. Her skin is soft and smooth, though cold. Somewhat like a rubber chicken. With her winsome looks and totally gyaru wardrobe - she goes out in Hello Kitty t-shirts, a nod to parent company Sanrio - it's easy to overlook this shortcoming. All she needs is a little warmth in her silicone hide.

A mind would be nice, too. The wizards at Kokoro, however, are already working on this. A company official told me the firm is pursuing collaborative artificial intelligence research to make Actroid more humanlike. With warm skin and a sharper tongue, who knows what she'd be capable of?

Global revolution, methinks.

This little piggy

Want to encourage your budding little industrialist? This nifty piggy bank, mentioned in an earlier post, teaches children the important virtues of thrift and factory automation. Let's see a mutual fund do that!

Not only does this bank have a coin receptacle guarded by a multi-jointed robot arm, it boasts AI functionality: it's a "decision maker." The user asks a question, pulls the lever and gets pithy responses like "never." Sounds a bit grim, but kids have to learn the hard facts of life when it comes to all those eternal questions. Like, when do I get my money back?

Never!

Gladhanding

Resin maker Daiwa Giken Industrial Co.'s ad, gracing Fukuyama Station on the Sanyō-honsen Line, says it all: "Dreams and high-tech through plastic."

Robot antiques roadshow

On the road in rural Japan recently, I spotted this guy amid some old teacups and lamps at a very curious antiques shop in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. Some of these older toy robots from the fifties and sixties can fetch tens of thousands of yen, or a lot more, in Japan.

The shop is called Sanyo-do and it's worth checking out if you're in Kurashiki, famed for its old warehouses along the canal. Not only does Sanyo-do inexplicably have dozens of porcelain HMV dogs on its roof (the terrier listening to the gramophone), its upper floor houses an amazing piggy bank museum -- which happens to include a piggy bank in the shape of a robot welding arm!

Perfect for budding little industrialists.

Manoi: Cosplayer robot

One of the fun things about having a kit robot is you get to take lots of silly photos of it. And dress it up.

I had too much fun at Dark Carnival bookstore in Berkeley posing Kyosho's Manoi in the owners' doggie clothes. Actually they did the dressing up, not me -- Jack and Jay were laughing but their dog was not amused. Here's Manoi in Polar Expedition and Shriner versions.