Japanese robots

Paro wins award

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 00:35:00 +0000

BBC news is reporting that the baby-seal therapeutic robot "Paro" has won the won the service prize at the Japanese-government sponsored Robot Awards 2006. Paro is not noew however, I first covered it way back in 2004.

Nanotech and robots, is Japan the ideal place?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 03:57:00 +0000

I have recently been reading a bit about future robot technologies, in particular the work of Ray Kurzweil such as "The Age of Spiritual Machines" and his most recent book "The Singularity is Near". There is a lot of interesting stuff in these books about the way future technological innovations and progress will change our lives. Now, you can argue with some of Kurzweil`s predictions and I am sure many of them will be dismissed as fanciful by a lot of readers. However, his prediction about the future development of robotics and AI are interesting. Kurzweil envisages a future where robots will become our physical and intellectual superiors and the only way we will be able to stop from becoming just another evolutionary dead end will not be by trying to compete with the robots (our biological evolution is far to slow to stand a chance of competing with the exponential increase in the information processing capabilities) but rather, we will merge with the robots, initially as human-machine hybrids and, possibly, in the long term, migrating to full machine based life forms. All this will be possible only with advances in nanotechnology. Nanotechnology will be required if robots are to be able to better animals physically (just look at the clunky walking of even the most advanced of the current generation of bipedal robots and compare it to human movement generated by the action of billions of molecular motors to see the benefits of nanoscale technology). Nanotechnology will also be required if robots are ever to reach human levels of intelligence. Now, the question of whether conscious machines can be made and whether artificial intelligence at human or greater than human level is even possible is a huge, contentious debate which cuts across all areas of science and philosophy and is one that I can`t even begin to touch upon here. For those of you who want to get into this argument, one interesting place to start is the "Chinese Room" argument put forward by philosopher John Searle as a way of showing that machines could not posses "strong AI" (a form of artificial intelligence that is conscious and able to reason rather than blindly follow instructions). Reading this argument and counter arguments should provide some basic background to the AI debate. The argument in favour of the eventual emergence of truly intelligent robots goes something like this: Most scientists believe that there is no non-physical component to the brain, i.e. there is no spirit or magical substance that resides in your head, rather everything that makes you you comes from the physical properties of the neurons, chemicals, etc that constitute your brain and that consciousness, thinking etc is simply the "emergent property" of a lot of electrical and chemical signals running through the complex circuitry of your brain. Given that this is the case it should be possible to copy one information processing device (your brain) using a different information processing device (a computer chip). The materials may be different, but so long as they both process information in the same way, the results should be the same. Of course the brain is a pretty complicated organ and so it would require a complicated computer chip to equal it. This is essentially a question of miniaturization. The fundamental component of the computer processor is the transistor. Transistors are continuously shrinking as manufacturers try to fit more and more into their chips and current chip design is already well into the realm of nanotechnology consisting of feature sizes below 100 nanometres. Continuing miniaturization will require new manufacturing technologies but is likely to proceed apace meaning that our computer chips will continue to get faster and faster (for the same price). Finally, in order to interface non biological and biological systems together, we will also need nanotechnology. Trying to interface the miniscule circuitry of a computer chip seamlessly to the tiny features on single neurons is going to require devices on the nanoscale.

So where does Japan fit into all of this? As we all know, Japan is pretty much the world leader in robotics and the physical capabilities its robots show are second to none. It is continuing to make use of its traditional strength in miniaturization to make the robots physically more capable and robust. In addition, Japan has a long history in just the kind of nanotechnology that will be required to produce intelligent robots: The country has long been a leading producer of computer chips and companies such as Toshiba, Panasonic, and NTT continue to carry out cutting-edge research, this is helped by the extremely strong academic research in the appropriate areas of the physical sciences that Japan enjoys. I can see that it is only a matter of time before some bright researchers begin to combine these fields and start producing a newer generation of smarter, faster robots. What does that mean for us bog-standard humans? I`m not sure...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:41:00 +0000

When all else fails, post a photo of the Hello-Kitty Robot (it can talk with you!)

Life-like robot MC

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:31:00 +0000

There are 3 basic aproaches as to the appearance of a robot: Don`t try to make it look life-like, try to make it somewhat life-like, or try to make it very life-like. The problem with option one is that people tend not to interact with something that is obviously a machine, or at least, their interactions are not very deep. Option two has the so-called "uncanny valley effect" where at first people think that the robot is organic but then, they realise that it is a machine, and the fact that the machine looks partially life-like makes them feel uneasy. The problem with the third option is that it is very difficult to make a robot look very life-like and if it fails, it runs the risk of falling into the uncanny-valley problem mentioned above. If it succeeds it runs into another problem - if a robot looks completely realistic then people will expect realistic behaviour; if your robot looks exactly like a cat, you had better make sure it can do all the things a cat can do, otherwise people will be very disappointed. The robot on the righ above is an attempt to make a robot that looks very life-like. I hesitate to call it a "robot" as it has essentially no autonomy. Nevertheless its face, was very human looking and shows the direction that the external appearance or robots may be taking. Already such robots have been used in a limited role in information booths at expos etc. It won`t be long before we see them at reception desks and info booths at department stores and companies. Apologies for the short length and distance of the video. It was unavoidable due to the crowding at the venue.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 02:15:00 +0000

This is a new robot from Tmusk, the RIDC-01. It is about 4 feet tall. It is one of those robots I am not too sure about. It is big, heavy and has a strange combination of functions, the main ones being floor cleaning and the ability to project DVD movies from its head. Of course! An obvious combination. One assumes it is aimed at businesses; very few homes in Japan need such a large floor cleaning `bot. It can also speak and recognise voice commands. How useful those capabilities are in a machine whose main job is to shine the floor and project the occasional movie, I�m not sure. The cost, 10 million yen (50 thousand pounds, 85 thousand US dollars) is a bit steep. I�d rather buy a rhoomba and a nice projector and have enough cash left over for, erm, a sports car. I am not sure if they are on sale yet, if they are, I bet they�re just flying off the shelves.

Does Japan need a "Manhattan Project" for robots.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 05:17:00 +0000

Looking at my blog, you can see how advanced the research into producing advanced robots, particularly humanoid robots is in Japan. But still the hope of producing a robot with sufficient mechanical prowess to interact fluently with humans and our world and sufficiently advanced AI to do useful tasks and communicate with us still seems a long way off. For Japan especially, with its falling and ageing population the requirement for such robots in the not-too-distant-future is pressing. Some of the technologies required are already being developed, some seem a long way off. To prepare and integrate all the technologies required will be a mammoth task indeed, but the payoffs potentially huge. I wonder if Japan needs to really treat it like the Manhattan Project or putting a man on the mun, i.e. set an ambitious goal and then really fund it to the hilt... The technologies we will need, as I see it are:

1. Power supplies. Current batteries are too heavy and cannot supply enough power. Their life is too short and their recharge time too long. Fuel cells offer the potential to overcome all of these problems and are already well advanced.

2. Movement. Most robots still move using electric motors, these are too big, too heavy and cannot move quickly enough to give the speedy "bouncy" movements we see in humans and other animals. Artificial muscles perhaps bases on shape-memory alloys offer one solution and are already being researched. It seems quite possible that such technologies may become widespread.

3. Senses. Some robot senses such as vision are already beyond human ability. Others such as the the all-over touch sensitivity of our skin seem more difficult to replicate.

4. Artificial Intelligence. The biggest problem! To work in our wolrd and to interact with us, robots will need an understanding of how our world works and how we humans think. To do this they will need at least some idea of what it means to be human. If you know what it means to be human does this mean you are, at least, partially human? Clearly robots with such abilities are still a long, long way off. This will be the big challenge.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 05:16:00 +0000

A close up of Nagara III. He looked OK but not especially friendly! I guess this robot will go through quite a lot more prototype stages before it is ready to be sold to the general public.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 07:14:00 +0000

This is the "nagara" robot produced with funding from NEDO. It is a protototype that is being designed as a kind of lifestyle partner. A robot that will be able to play with humans, by, for example, kicking a ball.

Robonova

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:13:00 +0000

Robonova is actually produced by a Korean manufacturer but I had to include it because it is cool. Here it is doing a Tai-Chi routine but it can even turn cartwheels. All thanks to some nifty programming and 16 digital servos.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 11:07:00 +0000

This is a video I took showing the HRP2 humanoid robot doing a martial arts routine.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 10:22:00 +0000

With all the hype around humanoid robots it is easy to forget that by far the biggest market in the world for robots is in industrial robots. industrial robots first appeared in the USA in the 1960s but by the late 70s Japan had improved the designs and was filling a seemingly insatiable demand for the machines in its own booming manufacturing market. As of 2005 Japan still maintained dominance of this sector with Japanese companies making the majority of the robots and Japan itself still accounting for around half of all industrial robots in the entire world, although its share is diminishing as other countries rapidly add to their stocks.

Bye Bye Aibo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 10:12:00 +0000

According to news reports Sony is stopping all of its robot research. This means that soon production of the Aibo robot dog will cease and, presumably, Qrio, the prototype humanoid robot, will also be canned. This is an interesting development although I suspect that it has more to do with attempts by Sony to overturn a few years of not so good results rather than a general malaise inthe robot field. Indeed, one can`t help wondering if Sony is leaving at just the wrong time...

MuuSocial

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:13:00 +0000

I can`t decide if these little fellows are cute or scary. They are called MuuSocial. I am not sure who the manufacturers are, I think they are being developed by Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International. While many researchers into home robots have spent a lot of time in either making their robots as clever as possible or a physically advanced as possible, these researchers have taken a different tack. As far as they are concerned, the home robot of the future is about providing a friendly and intuitive interface between the human and the myriad networked systems in the home. The key to natural and effortless communication between man and machine relies on humans being able to relate to the machine on an emotional level. And MuuSocial is being developed with that end in mind, kind of like an emotionally intelligent network hub.

Japanese robot book update

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:57:00 +0000

Good news! It looks like I am about to get a literary agent for my Japanese robot book. I had been hoping to get one for a while. Now, if things go well and the agent agrees, I can turn my attention back to writing the book. I hope it will be published later this year. I`ll be sure to keep you updated on my progress.

Fujitsu HOAP 3

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:42:00 +0000

Fujitsu recently revealed the newest addition to the HOAP line of robots; HOAP3. These small robots resemble Sony`s QRIO and are produced and sold by Fujitsu to research labs in universities and companies. The owners use the robots to test their own behaviour and movement control algorithms. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of HOAP 3 but I did take a video of it which you can see above

Emiew front view

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:38:00 +0000

A front view of Emiew.

Hitachi Emiew

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:37:00 +0000

This is Hitachi`s Emiew robot. The robot has a vocabulary of around 100 words. Its apparent weakness; wheels instead of legs, is being marketed as a strength by the company: It means that the robot can move much more quickly than the standard bipeds. Hitachi hopes that the robot will be ready for use in the home and office in a few years time.

Can a robot be an artist?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 02:45:00 +0000

Can a robot be an artist? The mechanics of robots continues to steadily evolve. In recent years we have seen the rise of robots that can stand up, walk, run (in a manner), even ride a bicycle. While these abilities still lag some way behind humans is is inevitable, as smaller, more poweful motors and power supplies are developed and new technologies such as shape-memory alloys and shape-memory polymers begin to be used in artificial muscles, that human-like physical abilities will be achieved. But in artificial intelligence, the question of whether human level abilities wil ever be possible is still very much unanswered. Take the ability to create art. The above kanji is pronounced "budo" and means "Way of the Warrior" and was drawn by an Japanese artist. While a robot may be able to copy this art would it be able to create something so beautiful? Presumably it would need human-like life experiences, and an appreciation of what beauty is. Can such feelings be programmed into a robot and is there any reason that a robot`s sense of what is beautiful would be the same as a human`s given the very different ways the two are likely to see the world?

Ballroom `bots

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 10:46:00 +0000

There were some robots I hadn`t seen before including these ballroom-dancing robots known as PBDR (Partner Ballroom Dancing Robot). Professor Kazuhiro Kosuge is in charge of the research project developing the robots at Tohoku Unoversity (not Tokhuro as CNN and others reported, there is no such place). Notice the gap in the front of their "skirts" so that their human practice partner can move his legs.I saw a video of the robots being used to practice dancing but i have no idea if they are actually intended to be sold.

International Robot Exhibition - HRP-2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 10:35:00 +0000

Last week I went to the International Robot exhibition in Tokyo. There were so many robots too see. Of course, the most popular robots were the humanoids. For some years now, AIST and Kawada industries have been researching this robot, called HRP-2. It is the height of a small adult and appears to have similar abilities to Honda`s Asimo. The ultimate aim is for the robot to assist humans at home and in the workplace. At the exhibition, HRP-2 did some traditional Japanese drumming. I have uploaded a video of the drumming here.

Roborior

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 23:18:00 +0000

It wasn`t very long ago that home robots seemed like science fiction. In recent years some bots have beome available but have been quite difficult to get hold of. If trend-setting Japan is anything to go by, we may soon be moving into an era of more ubiquitous robots. The above robot is called "Roborior" (a typically Japanese melding of the words "robot" and "interior"). It is produced by tmusk and shares the same features as many of its predecessors. These include a gurard mode for when you are away from your house, in this mode it will contact you via your mobile telephone it it detects unexpected movement. The robot can also be remotely controlled via a mobile phone giving the user a remote presence in the house and the ability to hold a conversation through the robot. With the latest generation of mobile video phones already exisitng in Japan, it is possible, through the robot, to make a video call from your mobile to your house wand have the video displayed on the home television! Japan is the most rapidly ageing population in the wolrd and this robot is clearly being marketed at busy professionals as an easy way of keeping an eye on elderly relatives as well as a for use as a standard guard robot. It is available now at the Takamaya dpartment store, a chain of large shops that are spread throughout Japan. The price of almost 300,000 yen (1,500 pounds) means it is still outside the means of most people but is the cheapest such robot I have seen, The prices are only going to get lower.

Pino

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 06:18:00 +0000

Technologically Pino is only mildly impressive, a cute Pinocchio for the 21st century, Its real revolutionary feature is the fact that it is the first open-source robot, a kind of robotic version of the Linux operating system. The brainchild of Hiroaki Kitano, Pino was conceived as a robot that would be accessible to everyone; hence it is made from off-the-shelf parts. More importantly, the specifications of the robot in terms of both hardware and software are freely available for anyone to modify and improve. In this way, Kitano hopes that the robot`s abilities will be advanced much more quickly than if it were being developed by a small group behind closed doors.

Bicycling robot

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:47:00 +0000

Until this week, almost nobody in Japan had heard of Murata Manufacturing, a small electrical device manufacturing company based near Kyoto. But then they displayed their "Murataseisaku-kun" robot (literally, "Murata-manufacturing boy") at the interantional Ceatec technology show in Tokyo and the robot made national and international headlines. The robot stands about 50 cm in height and weighs 5 kilos. It can ride a one eigth scale bicycle with great accuracy; at the show it cycled along a beam just 3 centimetres wide. It can recognise obstacles and can go in reverse. The in-built cameras also allow it to follow the path of a line drawn on the floor.

The robot uses internal sensors (presumably some form of gyroscope) to sense and maintain balance. Gripping the handlebars of the bike also helps it to keep balanced. It can achieve a top speed of 2 km/h.

It took about 20 million Yen (100,000 pounds sterling, 175,000 USD) to develop. Unfortunately, I was not able to go to the show in Tokyo so I do not have a photo, but you can see a picture here.

Asimo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:40:00 +0000

I can't believe that I have never mentioned Honda's Asimo robot before! I have seen it a few times and it is very impressive. If you are in Tokyo you can easily see it at Honda's Aoyama Icchome showroom. Asimo is the fruit of twenty years of labour, much of it in secret, by researchers at Honda. The latest version is able to walk upstairs and over rough terrain, carrying its own power supply, a feature that renders it autonomous. It can also recognize and respond to human gestures and voice commands and even run (albeit very slowly).
Already, Asimo has become something of a celebrity; recently it became the first non-human to open the New York Stock Exchange and, in Asimo's native Japan, the robot has featured in advertisements for other Honda products. You can find out more about Asimo at Honda`s own pages here.

M-TRAN II

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 01:41:00 +0000

Here M-TRAN II is moving like a wheel. In the background you can just about see a model on legs that walks. The robot can interchange between all forms without outside control. You can see a very short video I took of a M-TRAN II walking here. As the video ends you can see the robot being put on its back. In response it simply inverts its legs! More about M-TRAN II will feature in my book.