Why Japan has bet its revival on humanoid robots
Why Japan has bet its revival on humanoid robots
By David R. Baker
Updated 8:53 pm, Friday, December 12, 2014
TOKYO — Tap a touch screen in the Miraikan science
museum, and a woman seated nearby on a plush white chair beams a placid smile.
Tap another icon, and her too-smooth face twists into a scowl.
Watch a corner of the screen, and see the museum through
a camera embedded in one of her eyes. Speak into a microphone, and your voice
comes out of the robot’s mouth.
“This is just a trial,” said Yuko Okayama, the museum’s
manager of international affairs. “But in the future, people might live with
this. We want visitors to think what it’s like, living with robots.”
Japan loves robots, a fascination nurtured by decades of
manga and anime. And if the Japanese government gets its way, that love could
spark a revolution.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calls robots a “pillar” of his
efforts to revive Japan’s stalled economy and deal with the country’s
shrinking, aging population. And he’s not just talking about industrial robots
like the ones that powered Japan’s rise to auto-manufacturing dominance in the
1980s.
Japanese researchers have created humanoid robots that
can walk and run, and some with faces that mimic emotions with startling
accuracy. Abe foresees robots helping out in nursing homes and hotels. Others,
humanoid or not, could respond to disasters like the 2011 meltdown at the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It is a growth industry, he says, that Japan
should lead.
“The adoption of robots tailored to the individual needs
of each workplace is without a doubt a major trump card that will drive our
local economies,” Abe said in September, at the first meeting of a Robot
Revolution Realization Council, which he created to boost the industry.
The obsession with robots — particularly humanoid ones —
almost seems quaint. In an era in which phones can talk and cars park
themselves, who needs the Jetsons’ robot maid?
Developing artificial intelligence has long been the
mission of many U.S. tech giants. But they mainly focus on programs — code that
can think much like a human — rather than walking pieces of hardware. Japanese
researchers want to create both.
To researchers pursuing the technology, the humanoid
robot has the potential to change the world, perhaps in ways we can’t
anticipate.
“There will be (reasons) why the humanoid will fit into
our lives,” said Shuji Yumitori, director of the robot technology department at
New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, a public-private
research group also known as NEDO. “The humanoid is my dream. And I think when
society is transformed, the humanoid will be required.”
The roots of Japan’s humanoid robot fascination may lie
in pop culture.
Long fascination
Generations of Japanese engineers grew up on robot
stories like “Astro Boy,” said Takako Ito, assistant press secretary for the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The long-running series of comic books, television
shows and movies — dating back to 1952 — features a robot raised as a son by a
human.
“It’s this idea of humans and machines living together in
peace,” Ito said.
Masayoshi Son, CEO of the SoftBank Corp. mobile phone
company, even cited “Astro Boy” as the inspiration for a robot that his
business introduced this year. “Pepper,” developed by a French firm that
SoftBank acquired, is designed to talk with humans, using software that can
recognize emotions in voices and facial expressions.
Pepper’s first job will be as corporate pitchman, with
food giant Nestlé stationing 20 of the 4-foot-tall humanoids in Japanese
department stores to hawk Nescafe coffeemakers. But SoftBank also plans to
start selling Pepper to the Japanese public in February for less than $2,000
apiece, marketing it as a family companion.
“To realize our vision, we have made a new entry into the
robot business, with the aim of developing robots that make people smile,” Son
said when first introducing Pepper in June.
Honda has spent more than two decades on its humanoid
robot, Asimo, which looks something like a walking, child-size space suit or a
miniature member of Daft Punk. Unlike Pepper, Asimo isn’t for sale. Honda uses
it as an ongoing research project into the mechanics of robot motion, with the
current version able to run backward and forward, as well as hopping on one
foot. Someday, descendants of Asimo may assist the elderly or clean up toxic
chemical spills, according to the company.
That approach to robotics — develop first, find uses
later — may sound a bit backward. But Japan’s leaders have good reason to pin
their hopes on advances in robotics.
Industrial robots helped turn Japan into a manufacturing
powerhouse in the 1970s and 1980s. And now that the country’s population is
starting to shrink and age — the result of a low birthrate and strict limits on
immigration — the need for labor-saving devices will only increase. Otherwise,
Japan will suffer labor shortages in its factories, fields, hospitals and
homes.
“Faced with a drop in the working-age population, there
is a sense of pessimism that 'Japan will no longer be able to grow,’” Abe said
in September, in comments posted on his office’s website. “However, we can
break through this barrier by taking full advantage of the strengths of every
individual Japanese person, including women and the elderly. ... The key will
be a new industrial revolution led by robotics.”
Google activity
Some American companies are taking notice. Google sees
enough potential in the field that it went on a robotics buying spree last
year, snapping up small companies in the United States and abroad.
The acquisitions included Schaft, a team of Japanese
engineers whose bipedal robot can climb ladders, open doors and drive a vehicle
around an obstacle course. Schaft’s robot was considered the leading contender
in a robotics competition sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department’s research
agency, until Google pulled it out of the running. But unlike many of Japan’s
robots, the Schaft device is not cute — it looks more like an assembly line on
legs.
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