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Robotics Toys Science

Robots Put on Show at World Robot Expo in Japan 89

Posted by timothy from the they-sing-they-dance dept.
rjelks writes "The World Robot Expo is going on right now in Japan. The exhibition is displaying prototypes of robots that draw, dance and mimic humans. Developers believe that growth in the robotics industry will grow rapidly in the coming decade. They hope that soon robots will become a common occurrence in our homes."
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Robots Put on Show at World Robot Expo in Japan More

Robots Put on Show at World Robot Expo in Japan

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  • you keep dreaming of robots in the home (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:12PM (#12792330)

    and i'll keep dreaming about flying cars and silver suits

  • Robots Put on Show at World Robot Expo in Japan!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by sonoluminescence ( 709395 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:12PM (#12792332)
    No way!

    Robots! at a robot expo!

    What is the world coming too?

    vv

  • Um (Score:5, Informative)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:13PM (#12792335) Homepage Journal
    It's not "World Robot Expo", it's just the "World Expo", they are showing off plenty of things besides robots.

    • Re:Um (Score:2, Funny)

      by Aaron Pannell ( 890521 )
      Well, I for one welcome our new robotic overlords.
    • Well, whatever you do, don't take Grandma. If you must, at all costs, keep her away from the stairs!

    • Theme (Score:3, Informative)

      by howman ( 170527 )
      The theme of the EXPO is enviornment so all of the country pavillions are geared towards that, but the robots are mostly if not all part of the corporate pavilions which include Toyota, Hitachi, Mitsui-Toshiba among others. But even theirs are geared towards the theme and how their technology improved the enviornment.

    • Re:Um (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Orinthe ( 680210 )
      Actually, it's a robotics exposition held at/during EXPO/Aichi Expo/ Aichi Exposition of Global Harmony. It's a World's Fair.

      I was living in Aichi prefecture for 6 months prior to it--you can't live anywhere near the region and not know it, the merchandising was incessant. Unfortunately, I left Japan just a few weeks before it began. :( I'm hoping to head back within the next month so I can go (it lasts until September).

      I especially want to find out about the Linear Express, the latest Japanese bullet

  • Now /.'ers can have their own robo girlfriend! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:13PM (#12792341)
    As seen on engadget!

    http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000563046382/ [engadget.com]

    Of couse, the linux crowd would make theirs out of duct tape and plastic....

  • Ha ha (Score:1, Funny)

    by ROFLMAObot ( 891386 )
    I guess we can expect some futurama-esque showgirl robots. That would probably lead to a to-be-popular robot genre of pornography. Ha ha.
  • Within the next 10 years or so we'll start to see a big boom in R&D in countries like India and China with Technologies relating to computer systems. America will soon find itself 'competing' agressively with these countries due to the low costs of running a buisness. For the past few years robotics have agressively developed and will probably end up being the next 'big thing'. Of course the US will jump on board. Could this be the next 'Bubble'?

  • Common occurance ... maybe not.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by guyfromindia ( 812078 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:19PM (#12792369) Homepage
    They hope that soon robots will become a common occurrence in our homes
    Woah! hang on... buddies..
    For example

    Tennoji High School in Osaka, central Japan, will receive 50 million yen (US$460,000; euro376,000) over three years in government money meant to produce technological whiz kids.

    Japan has budgeted 1.3 billion yen (US$12 million; euro9.8 million) a year for the program, splitting the money between 82 high schools, which are using their grants to focus on rocket engineering, genetics and solar energy.

    If other countries too follow Japan, by giving importance to education, well, maybe Robots will be a 'common occurance' soon...
    my 2c

  • "Draw, Dance, And Mimic"?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by John Hasler ( 414242 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:20PM (#12792376) Homepage
    > They hope that soon robots will become a common
    > occurrence in our homes.

    I don't think there is a big market for robots that draw, dance, and mimic humans. I could use one that would clean stalls, though.
    • The high-profile Japanese robotics efforts seem focused on "cute" designs, such as QRIO, AIBO, Wakamaru, ASIMO, and so forth. The successful recent U.S. efforts, such as Roomba, PackBot, Talon, and Da Vinci, tend to be uncute but useful. There is a decided cultural difference.

  • When will these robots actually be useful? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CyricZ ( 887944 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:21PM (#12792377)
    Every decade we hear that robots will be commonly used within the house within the next decade. And then another decade passes, and we're still not using robots. I'm sure the technology will eventually arive, but maybe we should let things run their course. Instead of promising that they'll be popular within x many years or decades, let's just say they will be popular someday.
  • let me be the first to say, THAT LINK SUCKED.
    no robot pictures.
    no robot movies.
    just 2 stupid ass looking robots playing trumpets.

  • Meanwhile... (Score:5, Funny)

    by hobotron ( 891379 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:26PM (#12792408)
    another [img161.echo.cx] robot mimicking humans was unavailable for comment

  • Silly robots (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:26PM (#12792409)
    I don't need a dancing robot, or a drawing robot. I need a fruit picking robot. Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, apples, etc.

    A weed pulling robot sounds good too. If it can tell a pigweed from a cucumber, there is a market for it.

    Just our luck humans end up with the field work, and the robots end up sitting on their ass spewing Vogon-class poetry, and telling us the reason we don't like it is our lack of a classical education.
  • What sort of things will a household robot be able to draw? Will they draw what they see through a digital camera and run an algorithm that makes it look like it was hand drawn?
    Will it have a database of (boring) things to draw?
    Maybe fractals.

    Maybe it can draw Pr0n? Though i doubt it'd be terribly imaginative... Robot: I have drawn you something You: Wow, another square. Great...
  • function movelefthandindexfingertopjoint {movingmechanicspiece(342445);} function movelefthandindexfingermiddlejoint {movingmechanicspiece(342444);} Wait, aren't robots supposed to save time by doing this for us?

  • I was there yesterday (Score:5, Informative)

    by howman ( 170527 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:42PM (#12792484)
    I saw a number of robots during my 5+ hrs at EXPO and hope to actually get into the Toyota pavillion (130min wait time)to see their song and dance routine when I go again tomorrow.

    The ones I saw included a tour guide robot that was, if you can imagine, like one of those old dime store fortune tellers except it looked like a japanese real doll (tm) flight attendant done up in a lime green suit and hat. You could ask it for directions to venues using voice command (japanese only of course) and it would give you verbal directions. With my piss poor understanding of Japanese, I could not make out if it was giving the right answers or not, but the voice seemed like a pre recorded message. I guess the thing did not understand, or had difficulty with background noise as quite often people would have to repeat their questions a few times, slower and closer to the mic which was basically a mesh ball mounted to the counter in front of the robot.
    It's movements were for lack of a better word, robotic and they didn't do the skin very well as it looked like satin silicon. It did do decent facial expressions while it was talking and from the looks on peoples faces, i guess it did a good job of matching facial experessions to dialogue. Again there was about a 20 min wait to get to try it out.

    Another one I did see was in front of the India pavillion and it was what you would expect a robot to look like from the sixties all shiny red plastic and black lexan. It had a huge bubble head and arms of a sort that moved slightly. This one too would give you directions of a sort and answer a few other questions as well as respond to people's proximity and stop moving if you were very close so you could have your picture taken with it. There was an attendant minding it to help people in it's usage and to keep kids from climbing aboard for a free ride as it ws on wheels and moved very slowly around what I imagine was a pre defined path although I could not see any magnetic tape on the ground or a remote in the attendants hand.

  • Not a world ROBOT expo (Score:3, Informative)

    by jdubois79 ( 227349 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @09:52PM (#12792534)
    It should be noted that the Aichi World Expo is not a Robot Expo, but a Energy Conservation Expo.

    It also showcases the latest technology from many major Japanese companies.

    The Expo Site, in English [expo2005.or.jp]
  • ... can be found here [nedo.go.jp].
    Probably the most unhuman looking robot is the ACM-R5, which is basically a snake design with a camera for the head. Just add some poison darts/fangs, and WestWorld will become reality.

  • Robot Rooter... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mjfgates ( 150958 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @10:21PM (#12792656)
    All of the things that I'd really want a robot for, it would get dirty quickly, and then get grit inside it, and then skizkeewunchgktktklllghh...

    Which is a silly way to put it, but a real issue: before you can have a robot in every home, you have to have a robot that can OPERATE in a home, for something like a year, with no maintenance. Anything less and there just wouldn't be a point.

  • They live in their own little world... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by derEikopf ( 624124 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @10:22PM (#12792662)
    Until they can figure out some way to make humanoid robots BETTER than humans (which is a LONG way off), nobody's going to buy them except as novelties.

  • Robot bullshit (Score:2, Funny)

    by shoolz ( 752000 )
    Call me when this is a reality:

    Leave it to Roll-oh [archive.org] (Worth every second of your time for a great laugh)

    I expect my +1 funny mods when the genrally-painful archive.org download completes. I'd go into more deatil in this post if the 'punchline' wasn't worth the mystique :)
  • Should read:

    Robots Put on Show at World Robot Expo... in Japan!

  • Obligatory Simpsons (Score:3, Funny)

    by The Hobo ( 783784 ) on Saturday June 11, 2005 @10:51PM (#12792775)
    Mobsters: Shut uppa you face Linguo: Shut up your face
  • "But given Q1's reported glitch-related 'spasms' at the expo, it may be a while before androids are escorting tour groups or looking after children"

    For some reason I'm picturing a female Japanese robot in a pink blazer with shoulderpads, spinning and flailing around on the floor like Pris after Deckard caps her in Blade Runner.

  • Very realistic android (Score:3, Informative)

    by numLocked ( 801188 ) on Sunday June 12, 2005 @12:49AM (#12793219) Homepage Journal
    Engadget has just posted this [nationalgeographic.com] article. Very creepy realistic android.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • One of the really neat robots at the expo that I read about was a ballroom dance robot. There were articles on it at CNN [cnn.com] and Yahoo [yahoo.com]. Basically, as it dances it matches the upper body movements of a human partner, sort of like what happens in real ballroom dancing.

    It reminded me of research by an MIT student last year on swing dancing robots [mit.edu]. Clever haptic interfaces are cool.
  • "They hope that soon robots will become a common occurrence in our homes."

    Yes, as they break down the door with their augmented fists and we hide in vain in the bathroom from the robotic onslaught of death.

  • Really, the 'Ironing Robot'? They should be ashamed. I actually saw on of these at my local elecronics store.

    Large hair dryer != robot, even if you place a shirt on it to be 'ironed'.

    Anthropomorphic devices are robots. Ginger bread men are not robots.

    What is a robot? Go google it yer lazies. Something about moving around, sensors... blah.
  • I wrote a little about this here [blogspot.com], but you should also check out Marshall Brain's Robotic Nation [marshallbrain.com] essays for more. It might not be all good news for a rapid rise of robotic technologies. Espcially if the socio-economic factors aren't taken into consideration from the beginning.

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