"Robo Revolution"-Robo Home
Tuesday, May 05, 2009SUSIE GHARIB: Japan has been a leader in robotics for decades, operating nearly a third of all industrial robots. Now, it's using that expertise to create smart machines for the rest of society. Personal robots for work and home could be the next big thing. As we kick off our three-part series, "Robo Revolution," Lucy Craft says those efforts could also be Japan's best hope for keeping its society competitive and productive.
LUCY CRAFT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to the future, Japanese-style. Instead of watchdogs, watch-bots will patrol home and office. They'll be armed with a nifty arsenal for smoking out intruders. These home and office security robots by a Japanese startup called Tmsuk are still novelties. But not for long, say experts like Tokyo A&T University's Shigeki Toyama. He's convinced the era of personal robots is about to dawn.
TRANSLATION OF: SHIGEKI TOYAMA, ROBOTICIST, TOKYO A&T UNIVERSITY: Robots will appear in a variety of venues -- in the home, in the service industry and in nursing. Now that computers are more sophisticated and can talk to each other and with robotics technology improved, this will definitely take off.
CRAFT: Here at the elite University of Tokyo, a government-led consortium of blue-chip auto and electronics makers has their eyes on the long-cherished prize -- commercial robots for the home, says Professor Masayuki Inaba.
TRANSLATION OF: MASAYUKI INABA, CHAIR, INFORMATION & ROBOT TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INITIATIVE, UNIV. OF TOKYO: Our mission is to solve the problems of a society that is aging and shrinking. We want to make it easier for people to work.
CRAFT: This is one of Japan's answers to a rapidly aging society, something that's neither a wheelchair nor a Segway but a little bit of both. This is how it works. Sit down in the chair, which is loaded with sensors, put your feet on the pad. The chair knows that you want to go ahead and you lean forward and away you go. Much research around the world has focused on making homes more automated -- so-called smart houses, notes roboticist Rob Buckingham -- rather than trying to create mobile, personal robots.
ROB BUCKINGHAM, MANAGING DIR., OC ROBOTICS: Do you want actually a smart house or do you want a robot in a normal house? It may be easier to route A rather than route B.
CRAFT: Yet Japan continues to pursue the dream of robots intelligent and agile enough to safely negotiate cramped Japanese homes. Imagine sharing your house with a mannequin clunky enough to break a finger -- not to worry, these burly prototypes are just a rough draft of our personal robot future. Think cute, says Tokyo University Professor Ikuo Mizuuchi. Think Astro Boy.
TRANSLATION OF: IKUO MIZUUCHI, PROF., DEPT. MECHANO-INFORMATICS, UNIV. OF TOKYO: The ideal robot would be no bigger than an eight-year-old child. Adult-sized would be dangerous. We want a kid-sized robot that's strong and flexible. Astro boy would have been perfect.
CRAFT: And if you think robots can't take your job away, well, you might want to think about that one again. Lucy Craft, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Tokyo.
GHARIB: Tomorrow, Lucy Craft looks at how research goes from making robots more human to making humans more robotic, as she continues her series "Robo Revolution.
