Japan eyes robots providing services for personal, medical care

Japan, an established leader in the field of robotics in the world, is seeking to transform the cutting-edge industry from traditional industrial robot production, to areas including robotic personal and medical care services in an effort to address problems brought about by its rapidly aging society.
Japan's robot prowess started to blossom in the 1970s and the industry became a national strategy aimed at achieving its current goal of being the world's top robot producer and user.
According to the Japan Robot Association, sales of industrial robots will hit one trillion yen (about 8.70 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015 and the number, including robots for home services, will surge to 2.8 trillion yen (about 24.36 billion dollars) by 2020.
As the decreasing birth rate and increasing aging society has troubled Japan for a long time, weighing heavily on its labor market, the development of robots will witness a new momentum, according to the association, which added that the focus will be put on exploring robots that can provide personal and medical care services, rather than further developing industrial versions.
To achieve the goal, the Japanese government put the robot industry into its economic growth strategy in June, saying it will largely assist the development of the industry, and therefore formed a panel that compiled a five-year plan to develop and popularize such robots.
Japan also said it will hold an Olympics for robots in 2020 when the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games kick off here, in order to show the world Japan's most advanced robots and related technologies.
Now, Japan has advanced with humanoid robot innovations, boasting image and language recognition, intelligent calculations, and the control systems have improved dramatically here and such new technologies could make robots more helpful in fields such as taking care of the elderly and the ill or doing housework.
"Miraikan," Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, exhibited three humanoid belle robots recently that could conduct a basic conversation with visitors such as asking and answering questions raised by them.
Special silicon resin is used to make a soft, elastic skin on the belle robots and fine-spun artificial muscles are used on their faces so that they could have sophisticated facial movements, or "emotions," that could change based on different conversations.
Another interesting case here is that Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor on robot technology at Osaka University, "cloned" himself, joking that the robot version of Ishiguro, which looks the same as the professor, could attend some meetings instead of the real Ishiguro.
The professor said the capability of computers surpasses that of human beings and a humanoid robot will be so smart that they can perfectly undertake housework, expressing his hope that everyone could have their own robot servant before 2030 and a harmonious community that groups human beings and robots could be created.
Now, more and more Japanese enterprises have engaged in humanoid robot development and other relevant industries. Besides traditional makers like FANUC, Yaskawa and NACHi, Toyota unveiled its robot that can walk and play musical instruments in 2005 in the Expo 2005 Aichi.
For Honda, it created in 2000 the "ASIMO" robot that could walk on two legs and after years of improvements on its software and hardware, the model can now jog at a top speed of 9 km per hour, and, serve drinks after perfectly opening a bottle.
Panasonic released a medicine convey robot last year in a move to relax nurses from their busy work. A sensor controlling system is installed on the robot, giving it the capability to avoid clashing with patients, medics and other obstacles.
Sharp, for its part, has also developed and is mulling to sell a patrol robot that can engage suspicious people hanging around houses and transmit facial images of potential suspects to home owner's security system.
For Yaskawa, it also unveiled recently a new model of a medical care robot, which employs four mechanical arms that can move paralyzed patients from beds to wheelchairs. The job originally needs two strong medics but the robot can complete the job with just one "button-pusher."
Yaskawa plans to test the robot in nursing homes for one year and put it on the market in about two years after improvements.
Softbank, one of the largest mobile carriers in Japan, also developed a humanoid robot named "Pepper." The 1.2-meter robot dances, makes jokes and estimates human emotions based on expressions. "Pepper" now serves at some Softbank's shops and will go on sale in February for less than 200,000 yen (about 1,743 U.S. dollars).
For now, the idea of people and robots living together in harmony, such as in the movie "I, Robot," a 2004 film started by Will Smith, will become a reality in the near future for society, but evil plots by future humanoids to conquer the world will hopefully not be something humans will have to endure.