COVER STORY • 9 Robotopia Rising – Next Generation of Robots in Japan Brings SF Closer to Fact – By Tim Hornyak

Photos: Greg McCartney The children were completely ingly fast industrial robots have been immersed in the battle being fought turning out everything from luxury before their eyes. Two teams struggled sedans to printer cartridges, batteries, to gain control of the ball, get it across and, of course, more robots. Japan the pitch and slot it home into the became the most automated place on enemy’s net. When at last one of the earth, but now a new generation of strikers booted it between the posts, the robots designed to help and entertain kids cheered with delight. This was ordinary people instead of improving soccer with a twist – all the players corporate productivity is quickly grow- were robots, humanoid machines that ing up. kids can build and control themselves. The 2005 Aichi Expo held outside It is the latest trend in a technological Nagoya was a world fair that stood out revolution that is sweeping Japan as not only for its 22 million visitors but robots are finally moving out of the fac- for showcasing about 70 types of new tory and into homes across the country. robots that included security patrol machines working on-site, humanoids Big in Japan that marched in a musical band, and lifelike, interactive androids. In fact, Japan has dominated global robotics robots stole the show. Such exhibitions development since robots began work- are nothing new – Expo ‘85 in Tim Hornyak, author ing in manufacturing plants in the Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, for of “Loving the Machine: The Art 1970s. Ironically, the industrial robot instance, featured a Waseda University and Science of was an American invention imported in humanoid robot that played J.S. Bach’s Japanese Robots,” 1969 by Kawasaki Aircraft Co., which “Air on the G String” on the keyboard says Japan’s lead- ership position in teamed up with pioneering US firm along with the NHK Symphony robotics is driven by Unimation Inc. to produce the Orchestra – but the Aichi event both practical needs Kawasaki-Unimate 2000, Japan’s first demonstrated that major Japanese elec- and a deep cultural passion. domestically produced industrial robot. tronics firms and university-industry Since then, factory automation has ventures had joined the robot develop- been developed and implemented on a ment race. The goal? To develop massive scale in Japan. Tireless, blind- robots that can help people.

Photos: (left¢er) Tim Hornyak, (right)Osaka University Intelligent Robotics Laboratory

The 2005 Aichi Expo was a landmark in humanoid robot development in Japan, delighting visitors with many intelligent machines, including household robot Wakamaru (left), android receptionist Actroid (center) and Repliee Q1expo (far right), an android shown here with its human model, NHK TV announcer Fujii Ayako.

26 JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2007 COVER STORY • 9

Photo: Shibata Takanori, AIST Cybernetic Caregivers harp seal, but it is laden with sound and tactile sensors. When Paro is stroked or Robots are not simply exhibitions or hugged, it responds by wriggling around prototypes in Japan. They are already or cooing in a soothing manner. Now being deployed in a variety of real-world in use at dozens of care facilities for applications oriented at everyday users. elderly people in Japan, Paro’s relaxing An increasingly important area is patient effect has been shown to reduce stress care facilities. Aizu Central Hospital levels in patients and caregivers. As a northeast of Tokyo recently introduced commercial product, the robo-seal is the country’s first receptionist and also becoming popular as a home com- porter robots to work in a hospital. The panion for pet lovers. The therapeutic robot seal Paro, developed at receptionist, made by Tmsuk Co., greets Meanwhile, scientists such as Sankai Japan’s AIST, is proving effective in care facilities. visitors and responds to queries with its Yoshiyuki of the University of Tsukuba voice recognition system, while the are helping prepare for the significant help old folks in the future is AIST’s porters transport luggage and guide visi- social challenges Japan faces as its popu- prototype HRP series, sophisticated tors to elevators. “We wanted to make lation and workforce shrink. Japan is a humanoids designed to act as personal this place less like a hospital and more rapidly aging society, and the low assistants and obey everyday commands. fun – we wanted to –give it a brighter birthrate means about one-third of The HRP-2 can navigate its environ- atmosphere,” says Narita Naoya, an offi- Japanese will be over 60 by 2050. ment with a laser vision and mapping cial at Aizu Central. “The robots give Sankai’s Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) is system, distinguish human voices from people a good feeling and can ease their a robotic exoskeleton that users can strap background noise, and carry out tasks stress. It shows that hospitals don’t have on to boost their physical strength by like fetching a drink from the fridge. to be just a place for sickness.” The tapping into the body’s bioelectric sig- Researchers at AIST are continuing Tmsuk robots follow the success of nals through the skin. Such “power- work to improve its artificial intelligence Paro, a therapeutic robot seal developed assist suits” could be used not only to abilities. A consortium headed by the by Shibata Takanori of the state-backed help move bedridden elderly, but for University of Tokyo, meanwhile, is National Institute for Advanced rehabilitation therapy and to help planning for robots that can tidy up a Industrial Science and Technology seniors live independently for longer. room by 2008, make a bed by 2013 and (AIST). Paro looks like a cuddly baby Another example of robots that could lift elderly patients by 2016.

Photos: Aizu Central Hospital

Aizu Central Hospital, seeking a more cheerful atmosphere, deploys two guide robots to help visitors by providing directions and carrying baggage.

JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2007 27 COVER STORY • 9

Photo: Tim Hornyak

Pulp Fiction Heroes

Aside from the demographic need for robots, Japanese clearly have a deep-seat- ed passion for them that is propelling development. It is a decades-old love affair born of manga and anime, featur- ing superhuman robots and awesome “mecha” combat vehicles as in Tomino Yoshiyuki’s Mobile Suit Gundam series. Such fantastic tales portrayed robots as heroes and helpers, machines that humans could turn to in times of crisis or control themselves to defeat the forces of evil. Tezuka Osamu’s iconic comic book and screen hero Astro Boy, conceived shortly after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was powered by an atomic Robot soccer is drawing more and more fans in Japan as players continue to evolve. The inaugural engine. In the hugely influential series, Kondo Cup held in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics mecca featured remote-control athletes made Astro Boy fought for peace in the near from DIY kits. future and served as a bridge between people and the robots that serve them. inanimate objects, is another factor. At crowd for its kung-fu moves and acrobat- His manmade “soul” made him deeply Buddhist temples, thanksgiving and ics, and the latest version is only around conflicted, longing to be more human yet funeral ceremonies are regularly carried $750. But adult male hobbyists raised on caring deeply for his fellow robots. In out for tools such as needles. I have seen Mobile Suit Gundam are not the only contrast to US author Isaac Asimov’s echoes of this in secular activities like a ones spending their yen on kits. “We get famous Three Laws of Robotics, which little league baseball game, in which the a variety of customers, including women focus on robot obedience to humans, kids lined up after the final inning, and and seniors,” says Goto Yamato of Tezuka envisioned a declaration of robot bowed to the field to express their Tsukumo Robot Kingdom, a robot retail- rights in which robots are granted the thanks. Indeed, Japanese seem to possess er in Tokyo’s Akihabara that sells over same status and freedoms as people. a greater willingness or ability to 100 humanoids per month. Astro Boy “affected many, many people,” empathize with nonliving objects and The science-fiction dream of personal says Asada Minoru, a leading Japanese project emotions onto them. So instead robots is coming true in Japan, but it is roboticist at Osaka University. “I read of fearing humanoid machines as poten- taking an unexpected path. Instead of the cartoons and watched the TV pro- tial Terminators, Japanese are eagerly being the next must-have universal gram. I became curious to know what anticipating peaceful coexistence with appliance, robots are emerging as niche human beings are. I still am…and that’s them as partners and friends. market products in Japan, helpers for why I build robots.” the elderly and entertaining projects for Tezuka died in 1989, but his cultural Science Fiction & Fact hobbyists. As the personal robot market legacy of robots as helpers lives on. In grows, the cost of the average robot is the recent Japanese film Hinokio, a boy It is no wonder, then, that events like expected to drop, making it more likely who has become a shut-in due to injury robot soccer games at the 2006 Akihabara that they will become as common as cars and loss of his mother, sends a humanoid robot athletic meet are such a hit with the or refrigerators in the future. Until robot to school in his stead, remotely younger generation. While sophisticated then, however, Japanese robot makers controlling it and interacting with class- consumer robots like ZMP Inc.’s $7,000 and fans will have sci-fi heroes like Astro mates. Eventually, the machine helps sensor-laden, preassembled Nuvo remain Boy to lead the way. him return to society. This positivist prohibitively expensive for most, a new view of robots stands in stark contrast to generation of do-it-yourself robot kits has Western cultural stereotypes of robots as been attracting a growing following since Tim Hornyak is the author of Loving the Terminator-like killer machines. Postwar the 2004 launch of Kondo Kagaku Co.’s Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Japanese science fiction is partly responsi- KHR-1, the first complete humanoid Robots. His writing on Japanese culture, ble for this, but the religious heritage of robot available as a kit. It is a remote- technology and history has appeared in Wired animism in Shinto and Japanese controllable machine that is popular with News, Scientific American, The Far Eastern Buddhism, particularly with regards to the Robo One combat tournament Economic Review and other publications.

28 JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2007