Hasta La Gadget!

Everyday Robots, the Ones That Have Forever Been Coming… They Might Actually Get Here?
Well, in Japan, anyway. Two massive companies and one or two government agencies have assembled some intriguing and aggressive robot launchpad situations, and the game might be changing from “what the distant future will bring” to “what’s going to be in place in 3 years.”

Before jumping into to why things are different this time, it’s important to be fair to those less enthusiastic or perhaps bitterly incredulous about such claims. Wild projections and plans for robotic life accessories, robotic nurses, doctors, cops, soldiers, and perhaps even friends & lovers have long been subject to entirely reasonable criticism and dismissal. Very rightfully so, because all the amazing robots of the future have been kinda perpetually just that; of the future.

It’s easy to discredit theories and hopes and what-ifs, but it gets tricky when non-intuitive collaborations arise and money starts flowing in from both the private sector and the government. As it often does with the robots, Japan’s recently taken a few big steps:

First, global automotive & industrial powerhouse Honda announced a new robotics-related development partnership with Japanese construction & real estate giant Sekisui House. Honda makes three assistive robots: UNI-CUB, a rolly self-balancing chair-bot, and the mobility-assistive robots Bodyweight Support Assist and Stride Management Assist (more energy put into engineering than naming, but forgivable – previous coverage here). Teaming up with Sekisui House looks to be an avenue for Honda to sort of insert its robots beyond demos and gimmickry and directly into homes – homes ergonomically designed with humans and their robotic appliances & amenities in mind.

For its part, Sekisui House appears to have recognized robotics’ imminent matriculation beyond hope & theory into practical, pressing consideration – followed by implementation. It’s telling that a company with no real vested interest in robots yet an obvious and fundamental interest in profit wants to get dialed into Honda’s stuff early and often.

Second, item #2 in the big developments department is that, just days ago, the Japanese government detailed plans to begin large-scale funding for assistive robotics research and development in conjunction with consumer-end subsidies for the consumption of robot-based healthcare. Important here is that it’s not projected funding for some vague, far-off day to be decided after the completion of a survey or study or what have you, it’s funding for this fiscal year. To move forward in incorporating practical robots into human healthcare, alongside the R&D push are initiatives aimed at revising insurance codes to cover assistive robotic devices and/or services for the elderly or disabled.

For the R&D part, the government initiative calls specifically for the following:
• A motorized robot suit that can assist in lifting or moving elderly and otherwise impaired patients.
• An ambulatory robot that can help the elderly and others walk by themselves, even on inclines.
• A portable, self-cleaning robot toilet that can be placed in living rooms or bedrooms.
• A monitoring robot that can track the movements and whereabouts of dementia patients.

Conveniently, we once again see Honda’s options for early adopters:

And with a little careful market positioning and some decent design, Sekisui House will have just the place to put them.

The Why: an Unstoppable Force Meets a Fleet of Robots
Readers interested in the big breakdown of Why Japan? and Why Now? should leap on over to our March 2013 piece and get hip to what translates pretty directly as The Nation-Wide Existential Really Kinda Big-Deal Population Problem: “Dear Assistive Robot Industry, We Need You! Sincerely, Rapidly Aging Japan.”

The very basic recipe for Japan’s motivation toward developing robot labor breaks down like this:
1. The affluent children of two post-war baby-boom generations have for several decades been increasingly unmotivated toward the baby making, 2. the resulting birthrate in Japan has dropped far lower than 2.0 (which would be a replacement set for the two parents, i.e., population equilibrium), 3. Around 98.5% of Japan’s 130 million or so humans are ethnically and racially Japanese, and to put it gently, foreign residents aren’t so likely to be asked how long they hope to stay, but when they’re going home. That is to say, it’s unlikely that an immigrant labor force will be allowed or would want to take care of: 4. Nearly 40% of Japan’s population is 55 or older.

Therefore: robots.

It’s Worth Believing This Time:
In Japan, and really anywhere in the world, the pop-culture image of robotics and their capabilities is served up in sci-fi fantasy. As such, the reality can be a bit deflating, and one cannot really fault the average citizen for feeling that the promise of advanced robotics has been a long wait for a train that never arrived – and probably never will.

However, along with nearly every other branch of science, robotics is now subject to the massive leaps in computational capability that’ve put everything technology-related, i.e., the entirety of human civilization, into super-tech overdrive. To the slightly robo-dorkier among us, it’s clear that we’re entering new territory, and the future – the near future, is very bright.

And another way to tell is when seemingly unrelated Japanese companies start aligning robotics initiatives, and rather conservative government agencies start earmarking real robo-cash. This should be very, very interesting.

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Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.

Props to Jason Falconer at Gizmag for the heads-up on Honda/Sekisui.
Thanks to the Yomiuri Shimbun Online.
Images: Honda & Sekisui House

Google Me This: What Ever Happened to Sony’s Robots?
Okay, check it out: so there’s this massive, global technology company, and about 14 years ago they decide to make a few robots. Turns out they create some really smart, cutting-edge, super-tech devices: a doggy robot, and a toddler-sized android. But then they give up after only 7 years – in fact, last month marked the end of the giant corporation’s obligation to provide support, service, and parts for one of the most iconic robots ever created. Off-hand you might not know their names, but almost anyone with electricity will recognize these two:

On the left is Sony’s approximately 12-inch (29cm) tall AIBO robotic dog (Artificially Intelligent RoBOt). It went on sale in 1999, and the first run of 3000 sold out in less than an hour. According to their own figures, in total Sony moved about 150,000 AIBOs across 8 product iterations, which is not bad for a US $2000 robot toy.

To doggy’s right is the approximately 24-inch (60cm) tall android QRIO (Quest for CuRIOsity). This project began in 2000, and while it never went on sale, as a research & demonstration platform it was and remains one of the world’s most advanced bipedal robots. Only three years into the project, QRIO was able to run (defined by locomotion involving both feet simultaneously leaving the ground), thus besting Honda’s then already 10+ years of biped research (e.g., ASIMO and its precursors).

Sony developed a range of original software applications and hardware innovations for the completely unique and unprecedented robots. Both AIBO and QRIO could function autonomously, and their artificial intelligence suite included location awareness & autonomous navigation, personality development, speech, voice and facial recognition with recall, touch sensors, and multimedia collection and sharing capabilities. So yeah, well done, good work people! Right?

Termination
Well… ultimately it didn’t matter that Sony’s Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory had quickly and effectively developed two of the world’s most widely recognized and technologically advanced robots; it made no difference that with AIBO they’d created the most sophisticated consumer robot ever (and arguably best-selling), and it didn’t matter that, at relative super-speed, with QRIO they’d successfully demonstrated a state of art research & marketing android who was, according to their own promos, “Sony Group’s Corporate Ambassador.”

The significance of IDL’s achievements was ignored; sadly, Sony’s unimpressed and apparently unmovable killjoy bean counters just weren’t feeling it. In what now seems an overzealous and short-sighted attempt to reign in costs and frivolous R&D diversification, on January 26, 2006 the press-release obituary went public: Sony’s advanced robotics projects were canceled indefinitely.

Why, Sony? Why?
With sales & profits at all-time highs, they were actually doing quite well at the time. But, that curmudgeonly British guy had been put in charge, and they’d already committed to some restructuring and fat trimming. Apparently the company’s robotics initiatives, despite their success and all-around awesomeness, were judged too chubby to keep around.

Quoted at the time, a Sony spokesperson said:
“Our core businesses are electronics, games and entertainment, [AUTHOR’S NOTE: By the way, in the case of robotics that’s check, check, and check.] but the focus is going to be on profitability and strategic growth. [ANOTHER ONE: R&D costs money & takes time, sister! And strategic growth? Oh yeah, because that whole robots thing is just a fad.] In light of that, we’ve decided to cancel the Aibo line.” (QRIO research was chopped at the same time)

Sony robots do still exist. On YouTube, anyway. Oh yeah, and there was also the 2007 US $400 egg-shaped Rolly music player thingy. Rolly was a pseudo-robotic, fantastically useless, impossible-to-understand-why-it-was-brought-out-of-prototype money pit that nobody ever wanted. There you go.

So, How’d That Restructuring and Fixin’ Work Out, Sony?
Okay sure, the 20/20 of hindsight blah blah blah… but 7 years later we can now clearly see how essential eliminating their advanced robotics projects was to streamlining and revitalizing the fabulously profitable and innovative brand that is Sony… except for the fact that everything you just read is the complete opposite of reality. With the exception of TVs, cameras, and the PlayStation, these days we technodorky observers can but roll our eyes at nearly every product Sony plops out. They’ve pretty much been on a continuous slide since the robots were canceled. They actually lost over a billion dollars $US in each fiscal quarter of 2011. While last year’s losses probably won’t be nearly as bad (probably), that whole thing were a business actually makes money is not currently part of the Sony landscape.

So what we got here is this: Sony executed AIBO & QRIO in the midst of record revenue & profit, and that embarrassingly misplaced effort at austerity did effectively nothing positive. It did, however, very successfully destroy two highly advanced and respected robotics projects that even 7 years ago had as much potential as some of today’s most advanced work. Sony still bit the dust and has been eating dirt salad every since.

Would canceling the cancellation have done a whole lot to prevent Sony’s ongoing fiscal flaccidity? Probably not, but still – they axed two of the best robots in the history of history in favor of cranking out 26 more variations of the VAIO and continually investing in the weirdly fetisishistic PSP road to nowhere. Not well done, guys.

Unwanted & Probably Unqualified but FREE Advice to Sony from We Here in Realityland:
Hi, Sony. How’s it going? Yeah, I feel you. Okay, now shhhh. Here’s the thing: you gotta remember and respect that there’s a sweet spot between playing technological jazz and straight-up reading the music. Until you get that figured out again, here are all the answers you need – and you’re welcome in advance:

1. Murder the PSP and all associated software & hardware ASAP. Nobody wants that.
2. Cut the inexplicably bloated range of VAIO computers from 57 to 5. Nobody wants that either.
3. Focus on making just ONE good smartphone, and just ONE good tablet. We’ve all been waiting for you.
4. Memory Stick, UMD, DAT, and MD. Stop doing stuff like that, and begin divorce proceedings with Blu-Ray.

Now, with some of that huge stack of money you’ll save from taking the above to heart, go do magic – do what what Sony used to do – then get the band back together and make with the robots already.
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Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.

Optimus Prime, Hot Rod, and Ultra Magnus. These are all robot cars from the Transformers franchise rooted in early 1980s Japan. Somewhat disappointingly, here in realityland it looks like Japan’s real robot cars will have names like Nissan, Toyota, Fuji Heavy Industries, Honda, Mazda, and Hitachi.

Assume gravelly cowboy voice:
“Hitachibots, transform and roll out!”
Yeeaaah… umm, nope.

Okay, sadly Japan’s big automakers aren’t yet churning out sentient, anthropomorphized, purely good or purely evil all-male robot warriors. But they are very hip to developing and deploying practical versions of so-called robot cars in cooperation with domestic government agencies (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism – MLIT), one another, and given their global reach, international partners as well. Domestically, the current aim is to deploy highly autonomous, self-driving cars on freeways within 9-10 years. If the system proves successful, a global brand like Nissan or Toyota would surely find additional markets in other, much larger national freeway systems (ex: the massive national networks of China and the United States).

Concepts and proposals for robotic automobiles have been around for almost 80 years, and functional experimentation has been ongoing since the early 1980s. Actually, when breaking it down by individual features, 0ne can see that cars have been gradually roboticizing for a long time, e.g., power steering, power windows, power mirrors, anti-lock brakes, etc., etc.

So naturally, big J-Auto’s development of self-driving, partially autonomous, and arguably robotic feature sets isn’t novel. The 2003 Toyota Prius (Japan only), for example, was the first car available with a sonar-based Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS) wherein the driver operates the brake and the car calculates optimal steering angles for automated parallel parking (this option didn’t make it to the U.S. until 2009). Robotic features aren’t limited to driving, as here with the 2006 Mazda Miata’s Transformer-like power sunroof:

So what else is there with the Japan/robot car special connection situation? Well, geography, as it is so often want to do, must also insert itself into this macro-cultural equation. Insofar as: Japan’s approximately 130 million residents are shoehorned onto a mere 30% of the country’s land area – and not by choice, the other 70% is either too unstable, rugged, or topographically crazy to be inhabited. So, if one imagines all those people in contiguous urbanization on an island nation about the size of the U.S. state of Ohio, or just a bit larger than Portugal, one can appreciate the extreme population density and everyday challenge of very close-quarter driving and parking.

Another big deal for robotic cars here is the very long-term continuous habitation of the habitable areas. See, when one gets off the modern, 1st world-standard, highly developed roadways, in most cases one will quickly find oneself winding through very narrow streets with little if any standardized configuration. Human beings have been living along the same trails-that-became-roads-that-became-streets for many hundreds, if not thousands of years – long before there was much regard for large-scale municipal planning or an even vague anticipation of the motor vehicle. The analog compensation here is that nearly every non-arterial, non-grid-like intersection in Japan has an array of fish-eye mirrors at each corner, and drivers either use them or risk having no idea what’s coming. A networked robotic car, however, would be able to “see” around the corners, which would be nice when navigating this Tokyo neighborhood:

And then there’s the demographics. We mentioned assistive robots’ role in Japan’s aging society a few weeks back; this country has a big-deal labor shortage coming up in a generation and a half or so. In addition to the role robotics will very likely play in augmenting a dwindling human services labor force, a day spent in any Japanese city futilely looking for taxi or bus driver under 45 will clearly reveal another pending labor shortage. Who’s going to fill those jobs in 25 years? Yep.

Japan is approaching a perfect-storm state of necessity for practical robots, and if proven effective, reliable, and safe, increasingly robotic automobiles are likely to get an early foothold here. Besides, piloting a car in Japan is objectively difficult, licensing and compulsory driving schools are quite expensive, and despite its world-class public transportation system, Japan does experience considerable roadway congestion (networked, self-driving cars are anticipated to greatly reduce traffic jams and the effects of human error). Add in safety benefits, a potentially positive environmental impact, and POW: if it can, big J-Auto will put J-robots on the road ASAP.

Japan’s current repertoire doesn’t include anything ready for public consumption, but there are some very advanced and promising projects underway. Nissan’s modified Leaf, introduced last October as the NSC-2015, as in the year 2015, is an ambitious and innovative offering – complete with smartphone connectivity:

Toyota is also keeping pace with the Lexus-branded Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle that debuted at CES in January:

Bringing things down to the personal, Hitachi recently unveiled their latest version of the Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System – Ropits. This autonomous, obstacle-avoiding, user-friendly personal transport is intended to one day assist the elderly or disabled:

Japan’s MLIT was scheduled to produce an update to their ongoing robo-car feasibility studies by the end of last month. While not yet public, it’s safe to assume that their assessments and directives probably won’t result in big J-Auto’s production of a transforming robot car that will protect you, your family, and the galaxy from those other, eeeevil robots – but within a few decades, it’ll probably be reasonable to expect one’s very own private chauffeur to be… well, basically just software.

For now and the near future, think of robotic cars as you might think of powered robotic exoskeletons, i.e., they’ll help you do what you need to do with greater strength, precision, and efficiency, but they aren’t going to walk out to the driveway and help you up the stairs all by themselves.

The robots are coming, but for now and a while to come, humans are still going to have to push a few buttons.
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Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.

Okay, so what’s an assistive robot?
Well, they’re a lot more cool and useful and tech than it might sound. Think of them more like… social robots, or maybe cybernetic enhancements, or, some years down the road, but not too many, complete physical entities capable of semi-autonomously moving about and taking action in everyday life on behalf of their owner.
As tools, assistive robots passively or actively bridge the gap between what we might refer to as “normal” everyday …