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Having talked in a previous issue about industrial robots, this time we will be looking at personal robots, which look now as if they are coming into fashion. What is the derivation of the word "robot"?
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It was the name of the androids that featured in the Czech playwright Karel Capek's play Rossum's Universal Robots (1920), and is derived from the word for slave. For some time thereafter, robots appeared in novels and comics, but the first actual industrial robot was not to appear until some years later, when in 1954 the American George C. Devol patented a "playback robot" (a device with teaching playback functionality), followed by the unveiling in 1958 of a prototype digitally controlled playback robot produced by Consolidated Control Corporation of the United States. In 1962, the American companies Unimation and AMF also began to market playback robots
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So robots were solely for industrial use in the beginning then. When were the first robots imported into Japan?
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In 1967. The next year, domestic production began following the rapid introduction of robot technology.
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I hear that the East's first robot, Gakutensoku, is in Osaka.
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Well, in a way. It was made by the biologist Makoto Nishimura, father of the late actor Akira Nishimura, to represent what science should be like, and it name was a contraction of the Japanese for "Learning from the Rules of Nature". It was exhibited at an exposition held in Kyoto in 1928. Air was blown through rubber pipes throughout the robot's body to move its hands and change its expression, and its face alone was around two meters in height, while its golden skin and crown of leaves representing nature added to its unique appearance. After exhibition in Germany, it disappeared, and the model on display at the Osaka Science Museum is a non-functioning replica. Nevertheless, it still amazes the parties of schoolchildren who come to see it.
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April 7, 2003 is supposed to be the birthday of the humanoid robot Testuwan Atom, known more commonly outside Japan as Astro Boy, who was created by the late cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, and interest in humanoid robots seems to be growing.
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That's right. Numerous events have been held since last year, and are continuing this year, in connection with the "birth" of Astro Boy. Astro Boy first appeared in a comic strip entitled "Ambassador Atom", which was published in the comic Shonen in 1951, and he was subsequently renamed Tetsuwan Atom in Japanese. In the 1960s, an animated version was made that achieved huge popularity in not only Japan but also throughout the world. Astro Boy served as an imaginary goal for researchers in human intelligence and robotics in Japan, and many people became researchers prompted by their fascination with Astro Boy. The Japanese love affair with robots is due in large part to the existence of Astro Boy, and Japan's leading role in the development of humanoid robots is also thanks to Astro Boy. Tezuka imagined that there would come an age in the future when there would be childcare robots and robots for space and seabed development and robots would coexist with humans, and this is becoming reality.
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Most industrial robots to date have been "helper" or "controlled" devices. Those now appearing on the market in considerable numbers, however, are generally autonomous "personal" robots designed for fun and leisure, aren't they?
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Yes, that's right. This trend is especially true in the case of humanoid robots. If we retrace the history of humanoid robots in Japan, we find that the world's first humanoid robot was WABOT-1, developed in 1973 by Waseda University. At the Tsukuba Science Expo in 1985, a robot called WASUBOT, developed jointly by Sumitomo Electric Industries and Waseda University, played on an electric organ. In 1986, Honda began research on bipedal walking robots, and produced a first prototype called the EO. In 1996, Honda unveiled the world's first independent humanoid robot, the P2. The following year, the world chess champion lost to Deep Blue, a supercomputer developed by IBM. 1999 then saw the unveiling of Sony's canine robot Aibo, followed in 2000 by Honda's bipedal walking robot Asimo. In 2003, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced the Wakamaru domestic robot. Over the past few years, humanoid robots have thus been rapidly evolving.
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How would you roughly divide up personal robots according to function and task?
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Broadly as follows
(a) Entertainment robots: A typical example is Sony's Aibo. Robots of this kind are likely to develop initially for entertainment applications where it does not matter if they make mistakes (as they will be considered cute even if they fail at something), and after a while more useful applications will be gradually added. Aibo first appeared in canine form, then as a lion cub, and next as a bear, and the fourth-generation model is in the form of a stereotypical robot.
(b) Welfare robots: These are care robots for the elderly and disabled, and are designed to assist with movement, sight and listening-related tasks, and conveying the user's wishes to others. They do not necessarily need to be in human form or be capable of movement, and an entire room could serve perfectly well as a robot.
(c) Rescue robots: Robots of this kind rescue victims of disasters such as earthquakes, and are designed to find and recover survivors buried in rubble. In the future, robots could be based at global robot bases for participation in disaster relief activities throughout the world. Projects envisaged include Robots Sans Frontieres and Thunderbirds 21.
(d) Pet robots: These are robots that serve as a substitute for pet animals. Living together with robots has a positive psychological (therapeutic) effect on humans. Pet robots can liven up the lives of people living alone, and also seek outside help if something happens to their owner.
(e) Domestic robots: Such robots perform ordinary household tasks, such as cooking, laundry and cleaning, as a member of the family. They can also act as playmates and companions, and serve as doctors or nurses when a member of the family is ill. As they operate in the environment in which humans live and should not feel out of place to humans, they must be humanoid robots in the same form as humans.
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What are the current problems regarding personal robots?
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The biggest problem is probably the still high cost of development and the high cost of production, partly because they are not mass-produced. A single robot can still cost in theorder of several million yen, and it will be some time before robots come to be commonly found in the home or by individuals. When Sony launched the Aibo on the Internet for ¥250,000 each in 1999, however, 3,000 robots were sold in 20 minutes, and robots probably need to be priced at around this level if they are to become really widespread.
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I understand that robots are also available for rent.
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Yes. Honda's Asimo can be found at the entrance to the Takashimaya department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, bowing and thanking people for their custom in order to attract customers and boost sales. The lease cost for one year is ¥20 million. Rental agreements were signed with seven companies in 2001, and five in 2002, but Asimo has yet to make a profit as development reportedly cost several hundred billion yen.
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How big is the Japanese robot market likely to be in the future?
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According to estimates by the Japan Robot Association, it will be worth ¥3 trillion in2010 and rival the automobile industry in size in 2020. Companies presently involved in the development and production of robots, including those for industrial use, include Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Yaskawa Electric, Fanuc, Nachi-Fujikoshi, NEC, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Honda, Sony and Seiko Epson. The future, however, will no doubt see the entry of firms in other industries and the further spread of robots in the home. It is safe to say that the robot industry will very likely be joining the biotechnology, nanotechnology, new material and aerospace industries as one of the leading industries of the 21st century. Although there are not at the moment any imports or exports of personal robots, exports will probably begin when mass production gets underway.
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