The Japan concentrates 40% of the nearly 923 000 industrial robots on the planet. It is not surprising therefore that the country is regarded as the kingdom machines. The trend is now for service robots designed to assist a Japanese population ageing.
Heroes manga (comic books) or animated films, industrial or humanoid robots serve as technology showcases the major national groups: the Japanese robots to display a genuine enthusiasm. Currently, all eyes are turning to robotics service in a variety of fields: submarines, medicine, cleaning, security, fisheries, forests, health care, recreation and pets. A segment which, if it remains marginal, is nonetheless promised a bright future. The 2007 International Robot Exhibition to be held in November in Tokyo, had planned to devote more than a third of its programme. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR), based in Paris, distinguishes between two types of non-industrial robots: those for professional use and those for private use. It is estimated that 31 600 units of the first category were commissioned in 2005, of which 18% robot submarines, 17% of cleaning robots and 16% of robots defence / security. Although increasing numbers of robots for private use are also much cheaper. Of the 2.9 million machines of this type listed by the IFR, more than half (1.8 million) were vacuum robots such as “Roomba” by the U.S. firm robot, 1 million robots games and Leisure and about 79 000 robot lawnmowers. According to Marc-Antoine Haudenschild, a specialist in Japan serving Global Equity Research at Credit Suisse, “service robots are only in their infancy. While it is difficult and expensive to design machines sensitive and very intelligent, market models advanced gets little about him rather well. ” And to indicate that the IFR table on a doubling of the number of professional service robots by 2009 and 5.6 million service robots for private use in 2008.
In Japan, in the leisure service robots are more numerous and more sophisticated. Indeed, since 2000, when Honda has surprised the world with his walker humanoid Asimo, the other Japanese groups have not remained idle. Mitsubishi has launched Wakamaru, a domestic robot lemon yellow, Toyota trumpeter and a humanoid robot Murata Manufacturing cyclist. Alongside these achievements, real technological prowess too expensive to be marketed, Japan develops domestic machines more affordable, like the Aibo dog developed by Sony and produced from 1999 to 2006. Without forgetting the humanoids: since 2004, the company Tokyo Kondo Kagaku Co. Ltd has sold at 795 dollars per unit, several thousand marchers robot kits. They are assembled and maintained by their owners, who often enter to football matches or fighting “Robocon” very accrued. And from October, the manufacturer of toys Takaratomy hopes to attract fans with his Omnibot 17 μ i-SOBOT, which will cost “only” $ 275.
Shoichi Hamada, general manager of the technical department of the Japan Robot Association, said that other machines, less charismatic, are also used successfully, particularly in heavy industry. Since the 1980’s, Japanese companies are using the building to effect robots to perform operations that do not require human intervention or to transport materials. Between 1997 and 2002, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has funded a project to create a humanoid for industrial use. Thus was born the prototype HRP-2, 154-cm high of 58 kg and with 30 joints allowing him to walk on uneven ground and even getting up from lying down.
Robots aids?
But this is the demographic crisis which is moving towards Japan, because of its declining birth rate and its longevity record which could seal the success of service robots. Without massive immigration (the country that stubbornly refuses), a severe shortage of staff caregiver seems inevitable. Unless the robots take over. Takanori Shibata, a researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, the class into two categories according to whether the assistance is of a physical or mental. On the physical level, robots are designed to intervene in the toilet or transportation of the elderly, but their marketing is not for tomorrow both technologies are still insufficient and many security problems. The machines based mental faculties are more successful, like “Paro”, a seal interactive robot developed by Takanori Shibata itself and able to remember his name and adapt its behavior to its environment. Tested in retirement homes and hospitals, he was appointed in 2002 “the most therapeutic robot in the world” by the Guinness Book of Records. According to its designer, “the robot acts as a pet and stimulates the minds of patients.” Nearly a thousand copies, a unit cost of $ 3 000 have been produced since 2004. And sales will begin soon in the world.
Present on a few limited markets, service robots are in their infancy and will still have to overcome many technological barriers before being offered to the general public. The Japan Robot Association and welcomes the support provided by the government to basic research on robotics service, including the acquisition of advanced visual, sound and movement. Not to mention artificial intelligence. For Shoichi Hamada, “if industrial robots have been successful so far because their environment has adapted to them, while service robots will have to adapt to their environment”. We must therefore develop effective systems everywhere, including in an office or a house in constant evolution.
A view shared by Marc-Antoine Haudenschild: “The robots are unable to provide tactile sensations and emotions when they interact with humans. And they are a formidable precision for repetitive tasks, their capacity for judgment in relation to movements to be performed is limited. ”
The importance of emotions
The solution may lie in a very advanced artificial intelligence, “kansei” ( “emotion”), which allows to recognize and communicate feelings, which is a major asset for service robots evolving contact with humans. According to Shuji Hashimoto, a researcher in this field and director of the Humanoid Robotics Institute at Waseda University, “the human reactions are not dictated by logic but by emotions. Robots must adapt.” This is the path followed by machinery “kansei,” which soon will use vision systems to recognize expressions, gestures and body language of man, sensors to detect voice intonations, the words and phrases , And sensors to measure heart rate and sweating.
Thus, scientists at the Meiji University in Tokyo have already created a robot capable of showing “emotions” in response to human words. When it hears a word, he looks on the Internet expressions including this term, then align the results on categories of emotions and generates, on its face polyurethane, a thirty-six expressions he has in mind .
For Junichi Takeno, a professor at the Laboratory of Robot and Science, “artificial consciousness is necessary because it will allow the robots to understand others and be aware of themselves.” With the key to a more endorsement for robots assistance.
It is too early to say when the service robots will take off and which country will be the initiator. This is not necessarily because Japan, though on the edge of the robotics industry, the country lags behind in service applications. According to the Japan Robot Association, it was competitive in only three areas in 2000: robots used in industry, construction and leisure.
Research on medical robots, it must be said, suffered draconian rules banning robots surgeons, already used the USA. In the space sector, Japan is lagging behind by NASA. And engage in military robotics, which represents the USA and Europe a significant proportion of funds allocated to research robotics, is excluded for a pacifist nation like Japan. Even the robotic rescue is neglected, yet in a country hit by earthquakes.
Shoichi Hamada believes that the government and industry does not fund research if markets are not safe. “Japan does not build robots that do nothing,” he says, even if everything is likely to change when robotics service become profitable. And explain: “This segment is young and experimental but also carries very useful applications, whether in the field of recreation, coaching, cleaning or commercial transport.”
For now, one thing is certain: Japan is preparing to boom robotics. With its expertise in industrial robots and electronics as well as the love its people dedicated to machinery, the country has every advantage available. The White Paper published in 2004 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on the future of the economy provides that the internal market for robots will reach 15.8 billion in 2010 and 54.5 billion in 2025, three quarters for service robots.