Japan Invests Millions in Robotics

7/31/2019 Japan Invests Millions in Robotics

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Japan Invests Millions in Robotics/AI

The following is a translation of a Japanese website by the blogPink Tentacle:

Japans Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has set aside over 2billion yen (US$17.4 million) in its 2007 budget to support the development ofintelligent robots that rely on their own decision-making skills in the workplace. Theobjective of METIs robot budget is to support the development of key artificial

intelligence technology for robots over the next 5 years, with the goal of introducingintelligent robots to the market by 2015.

Robots typically need to be pre-programmed with their operation patterns before theycan function properly, so their applications tend to be limited and they tend not to adaptwell to changes in their surroundings. Intelligent robots capable of working in tandemwith humans, on the other hand, will analyze their environments based on voice andimage data obtained through their sensors and adapt their behavior accordingly.

METI plans to use the 2 billion yen budget to commission universities andmanufacturers to research and develop artificial intelligence and voice/imagerecognition technology, which would be combined into commercially available robotsby 2015.

Examples of next-generation intelligent robots envisioned by METI include cleaningrobots and security robots that only need to be shown a facilitys blueprints beforethey get to work. Based on this information, these robots would make their owndecisions about what routes to take as they make their rounds. The cleaning robot wouldseek out areas that are particularly dirty and focus on cleaning those areas, while thesecurity robot would decide for itself whether or not to report suspicious individuals itencounters during its patrol.
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METI also envisions a guide robot with highly advanced voice and image processingtechnology that can interact smoothly with humans. Such robots would be able to speakand interact with customers in busy supermarkets, providing customers with verbal and

non-verbal (pointing) instructions on how to find particular items in the store.

The past 10 years has seen a rapid increase in the number of industrial robots, with anestimated 840,000 robots in operation worldwide. And with Japans annual robot

market expected to swell to about 3 trillion yen (US$26 billion) over the next 10 years,the Japanese government sees the development of next-generation intelligent robots as akey component in its economic growth strategy.

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Japanese robot creator

Hiroshi Ishiguro interacts with

a humanoid he designed to

look and behave exactly like

himself at his laboratory in

Osaka, Japan last August.

AP file photo

Japanese robots enter daily life

Posted 3/1/2008 12:01 PM | Comments 37 | Recommend 61 E-mail|Print|

ROBOTIC PAST

Japan's love affair with robots couldbe said to be more than 300 yearsold.

Wooden wind-up dolls known as"karakuri" appeared as early as the17th century. Especially famous is a

kimono-clad tea-serving machineconsidered one of the world's first"robots." It carried a bowl of tea ona tray from the host to the guest,waited patiently until the guestreplaced the bowl, and thenreturned to the host.

Based on Western gun- and clock-making technology, these robotswere designed as helpers or crowd-
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pleasers.

That was long before Czech

playwright Karel Capek's science-fiction drama,R.U.R., introducedthe word "robot" to the public atlarge in the early 1920s.

Capek's machines are at first happyto toil as laborers for their humancreators, but stage a rebellion thattriggers the end of the human race.

But, "In Japan, where robots are the

good guys in anime or comic books,people just don't feel as threatenedby robots as they do in the UnitedStates or Europe," said BrianCarlisle, president of Auburn,Calif.-based Precise Automationand former head of the U.S. RoboticIndustries Association.

"The Japanese accept robots, androbotics technology has thepotential to enter many new kindsof applications," Carlisle said."Naturally, the possibilities arelarger here."

The Associated Press

Enlarge AP file photo

An image of a Japanese man is projected


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after a 360 degree scan was made of his

head to produce robot facial skin to

resemble him. Japan faces a vast

challenge in making the leap --

commercially and culturally -- from toys,

gimmicks and the experimental robots

churned out by laboratories to full-blown

human replacements that ordinary

people can afford and use safely.

ROBOTS

Ethics:Asimov's 3 laws|

Love and sex examined|

Book excerpt|S. Korea

prepares ethical code

At work:Mixing cancerdrugs|Cheeses, wines

sampled|Devices used for

'dangerous, dull or dirty' jobs|

Roomba redesigned

Being human:Robot make-

up|Understanding

emotion|Toddler walk

mimicked

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By Hiroko Tabuchi, Associated Press

TOKYO At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to

simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.

Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robotdubbed Kansei, or"sensibility"responds to the word "war" by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears"love," and its pink lips smile.

PHOTO GALLERY:Japan embraces robots

"To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks," said project leader JunichiTakeno of Meiji University. "Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventuallyfeel them.

While robots are a long way from matching human emotional complexity, the country is perhaps theclosest to a futureonce the stuff of science fictionwhere humans and intelligent robots routinely

live side by side and interact socially.

Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimeswelcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robotsplant rice and tend paddies.

There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. Theyserve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now start-ups aremarching out robotic home helpers.

They aren't all humanoid. The Paro is a furry robot seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and

whiskers, designed to comfort the lonely, opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.

For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 orolder, the country is banking on robots to replenish the workforce and care for the elderly.

In the past several years, the government has funded a plethora of robotics-related efforts, includingsome $42 million for the first phase of a humanoid robotics project, and $10 million a year between2006 and 2010 to develop key robot technologies.

The government estimates the industry could surge from about $5.2 billion in 2006 to $26 billion in2010 and nearly $70 billion by 2025.
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Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well.

Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the

often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction.

This is, after all, the country that invented Tamagotchi, the handheld mechanical pets that captivatedthe children of the world.

Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundariesbetween the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robotwith feelings doesn't feel as creepyor as threateningas it might do in other cultures.

Still, Japan faces a vast challenge in making the leapcommercially and culturallyfrom toys,gimmicks and the experimental robots churned out by labs like Takeno's to full-blown human

replacements that ordinary people can afford and use safely.

"People are still asking whether people really want robots running around their homes, and foldingtheir clothes," said Damian Thong, senior technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Tokyo.

"But then again, Japan's the only country in the world where everyone has an electric toilet," he said."We could be looking at a robotics revolution."

That revolution has been going on quietly for some time.

Japan is already an industrial robot powerhouse. Over 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japanin 2005, about 40% of the global total and 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturingemployees, according to a recent report by Macquarie, which had no numbers from subsequent years.

And they won't be claiming overtime or drawing pensions when they're retired.

"The cost of machinery is going down, while labor costs are rising," said Eimei Onaga, CEO ofInnovation Matrix Inc., a company that distributes Japanese robotics technology in the U.S. "Soon,robots could even replace low-cost workers at small firms, greatly boosting productivity."

That's just what the Japanese government has been counting on. A 2007 national technology roadmap

by the Trade Ministry calls for 1 million industrial robots to be installed throughout the country by2025.

A single robot can replace about 10 employees, the roadmap assumesmeaning Japan's futuremillion-robot army of workers could take the place of 10 million humans. That's about 15% of thecurrent workforce.

"Robots are the cornerstone of Japan's international competitiveness," Shunichi Uchiyama, the TradeMinistry's chief of manufacturing industry policy, said at a recent seminar. "We expect roboticstechnology to enter even more sectors going forward."

Meanwhile, localities looking to boost regional industry clusters have seized on robotics technology as


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a way to spur advances in other fields.

Robotic technology is used to build more complex cars, for instance, and surgical equipment.

The logical next step is robots in everyday life.

At a hospital in Aizu Wakamatsu, 190 miles north of Tokyo, a child-sized white and blue robot wheelsacross the floor, guiding patients to and from the outpatients' surgery area.

The robot, made by start-up Tmsk, sports perky catlike ears, recites simple greetings, and uses sensorsto detect and warn people in the way. It helpfully prints out maps of the hospital, and even checks thestate of patients' arteries.

The Aizu Chuo Hospital spent about some $557,000 installing three of the robots in its waiting rooms

to test patients' reactions. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, said spokesman NaoyaNarita.

"We feel this is a good division of labor. Robots won't ever become doctors, but they can be guidesand receptionists," Narita said.

Still, the wheeled machines hadn't won over all seniors crowding the hospital waiting room on aweekday morning.

"It just told us to get out of the way!" huffed wheelchair-bound Hiroshi Asami, 81. "It's a robot. It's theone who should get out my way."

"I prefer dealing with real people," he said.

Another roadblock is money.

For all its research, Japan has yet to come up with a commercially successful consumer robot.Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. failed to sell even one of its pricey toddler-sized Wakamaru robots,launched in 2003 as domestic helpers.

Though initially popular, Sony Corp. pulled the plug on its robot dog, Aibo, in 2006, just seven years

after its launch. With a price tag of a whopping $2,000, Aibo never managed to break into the massmarket.

One of the only commercially successful consumer robots so far is made by an American company,iRobot Corp. The Roomba vacuum cleaner robot is self-propelled and can clean rooms withoutsupervision.

"We can pretty much make anything, but we have to ask, what are people actually going to buy?" saidiRobot CEO Helen Greiner. The company has sold 2.5 million Roombas which retail for as little as$120since the line was launched in 2002.

Still, with the correct approach, robots could provide a wealth of consumer goods, Greiner stressed at


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a recent convention.

Sure enough, Japanese makers are catching on, launching low-cost robots like Tomy's $300 i-Sobot, a

toy-like hobby robot that comes with 17 motors, can recognize spoken words and can be remote-controlled.

Sony is also trying to learn from past mistakes, launching a much cheaper $350 rolling speaker robotlast year that built on its robotics technology.

"What we need now isn't the ultimate humanoid robot," said Kyoji Takenaka, the head of the industry-wide Robot Business Promotion Council.

"Engineers need to remember that the key to developing robots isn't in the lab, but in everyday life."

Still, some of the most eye-catching developments in robotics are coming out of Japan's labs.

Researchers at Osaka University, for instance, are developing a robot to better understand childdevelopment.

The "Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body" is designed to mimic the motions of a toddler. It respondsto sounds, and sensors in its eyes can see and react to people. It wiggles, changes facial expressions,and makes gurgling sounds.

The team leader, Minoru Asada, is working on artificial intelligence software that would allow thechild to "learn" as it progresses.

"Right now, it only goes, 'Ah, ah.' But as we develop its learning function, we hope it can start sayingmore complex sentences and moving on its own will," Asada said. "Next-generation robots need to beable to learn and develop themselves."

For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings.His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himselfdown to the black, wiry hair and slight tan.

"In the end, we don't want to interact with machines or computers. We want to interact withtechnology in a human way so it's natural and valid to try to make robots look like us," he said.

"One day, they will live among us," Ishiguro said. "Then you'd have to ask me: 'Are you human? Or arobot?"'

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,

rewritten or redistributed.

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RoboticsMORE STUFF LIKE THIS:

Kismet - The Sociable Robot

Robot Pictures

Will robots get married?

How Robots WorkbyTom Harris

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Page
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Kitano'sPINO"The Humanoid Robot"

Photo courtesyKitano Symbiotic Systems Project

Robots and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably the most exciting field in robotics. It's certainlythe most controversial: Everybody agrees that a robot can work in an assembly line, butthere's no consensus on whether a robot can ever be intelligent.

Like the term "robot" itself, artificial intelligence is hard to define. Ultimate AI wouldbe a recreation of the human thought process -- a man-made machine with ourintellectual abilities. This would include the ability to learn just about anything, theability to reason, the ability to use language and the ability to formulate original ideas.Roboticists are nowhere near achieving this level of artificial intelligence, but they havemade a lot of progress with more limited AI. Today's AI machines can replicate somespecific elements of intellectual ability.

Computers can already solve problems in limited realms. The basic idea of AI problem-solving is very simple, though its execution is complicated. First, the AI robot or

computer gathers facts about a situation through sensors or human input. The computer
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compares this information to stored data and decides what the information signifies. Thecomputer runs through various possible actions and predicts which action will be mostsuccessful based on the collected information. Of course, the computer can only solve

problems it's programmed to solve -- it doesn't have any generalized analytical ability.Chess computersare one example of this sort of machine.

Some modern robots also have the ability to learn in a limited capacity. Learning robotsrecognize if a certain action (moving its legs in a certain way, for instance) achieved adesired result (navigating an obstacle). The robot stores this information and attemptsthe successful action the next time it encounters the same situation. Again, moderncomputers can only do this in very limited situations. They can't absorb any sort ofinformation like a human can. Some robots can learn by mimicking human actions. InJapan, roboticists have taught a robot to dance by demonstrating the moves themselves.

Some robots can interact socially. Kismet, a robot atM.I.T's Artificial Intelligence Lab,recognizes human body language and voice inflection and responds appropriately.Kismet's creators are interested in how humans and babies interact, based only on toneof speech and visual cue. This low-level interaction could be the foundation of a human-like learning system.

Kismet and other humanoid robots at the M.I.T. AI Lab operate using anunconventional control structure. Instead of directing every action using a centralcomputer, the robots control lower-level actions with lower-level computers. Theprogram's director, Rodney Brooks, believes this is a more accurate model of humanintelligence. We do most things automatically; we don't decide to do them at the highestlevel of consciousness.

The real challenge of AI is to understand how naturalintelligenceworks. Developing AIisn't like building an artificial heart -- scientists don't have a simple, concrete model towork from. We do know that thebraincontains billions and billions of neurons, and thatwe think and learn by establishing electrical connections between different neurons. Butwe don't know exactly how all of these connections add up to higher reasoning, or evenlow-level operations. The complex circuitry seems incomprehensible.

Because of this, AI research is largely theoretical. Scientists hypothesize on how and

why we learn and think, and they experiment with their ideas using robots. Brooks andhis team focus on humanoid robots because they feel that being able to experience theworld like a human is essential to developing human-like intelligence. It also makes iteasier for people to interact with the robots, which potentially makes it easier for therobot to learn.

Just as physical robotic design is a handy tool for understanding animal and humananatomy, AI research is useful for understanding how natural intelligence works. Forsome roboticists, this insight is the ultimate goal of designing robots. Others envision aworld where we live side by side with intelligent machines and use a variety of lesserrobots for manual labor, health care and communication. A number of robotics experts

predict that robotic evolution will ultimately turn us into cyborgs -- humans integrated
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with machines. Conceivably, people in the future could load their minds into a sturdyrobot and live for thousands of years!

In any case, robots will certainly play a larger role in our daily lives in the future. In thecoming decades, robots will gradually move out of the industrial and scientific worldsand into daily life, in the same way that computers spread to the home in the 1980s.

The best way to understand robots is to look at specific designs. The links on the nextpage will show you a variety of robot projects around the world.

Slightly unnerving: the Japanese Toddler

Robot

by Andi

Robotics and AI have evolved a lot recently. Japanese scientists have unveiled a robotthat merges these two technologies to create a mechanic toddler. Its called the CB2 orChild-robot with Biomimetic Body. Though its designed to emanate child-likecharm, I think its quite freaky.

Strange or not, the technology behind it are pretty advanced, and it shows quite a lot ofpotential for future improvements.

Instead of slow, typically robotic responses and movements, we see quick and naturalsquirming, much like a babys.

The robot is designed with an AI that allows it to act much like a 1-2 year-old baby. Ithas natural reactions to stimuli, recognizes objects, sounds and has an advanced tactilesystem.


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For the quick and natural movements, traditional servos have been replaced with 56pneumatic muscles. The sheer count allows for natural motion, while the system gives

them speed. The not-so-cool part is the need for air tubes, so the robot isnt completely

autonomous.

It has microphones for eyes and two cameras for eyes. The eyes also move rapidly andtrack whats happening around. Additionally, it has 197 tactile sensors that allow it to

react to touch.

Its creators are interested in commiting a lot of their time in order to teach it how towalk or talk, and also to raise its intelligence to the level of a 3-year old.

Heres a video of the 33 kg-heavy and 130 cm-tall robot in action. What do you thinkabout it? Cute or creepy?

Japan Invests Millions in Robotics

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