io9
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism. If you've noticed an unusually large number of utilitarian humanoids hailing from Japan in the last few years, then you probably won't be surprised to hear about the country's official robot initiative. Right now, Japan is in the midst of executing a grand plan to make robots an integrated part of everyday life. To compensate for the shortage of young workers willing to do menial tasks, the Japan Robot Association, the government, and several technology institutions drafted a formal plan to create a society in which robots live side by side with humans by the year 2010. Since 2010 is just a couple years away, I called up a roboticist at the forefront of this movement to find out how it's going.
But first, some background: In January, roboticists unleashed a five-foot tall humanoid robot named Robovie in a trendy mall in downtown Osaka. Robovie's mission was to help lost shoppers find their way to their destinations. Using 16 cameras, six laser range finders, and nine RFID readers, Robovie judged the behavior of all shoppers, 20 at a time, approached those that looked disoriented, and pointed them in the right direction. Then, as they hastily thanked him and walked off, he rattled off a list of nearby restaurants in case they were hungry.
You already see humanoid robots in Japan attending religious ceremonies, making sushi, planting rice, answering phones in corporate offices, subbing in as dance partners, and feeding old people whose motor skills are starting to fail. Animal bots have been making a big breakthrough too—from the digital Tamagochi to Paro the furry therapeutic seal, Japanese people are experts at satiating their need for companionship or assistance via low-maintenance mechanical friends. Monikers like Robot Kingdom and Robot Nation, which have been used to describe Japan since the 80s, are relevant now more than ever—with a shrinking labor force, declining birth rate, and an aging population, the demand for robotic help in hospitals, nursing homes, offices, and retail spaces is sky high. Researchers in Japan are confident that, in a few years time, humans and robots will coexist happily in a fully integrated man-machine society.
So how exactly are these ambitious roboticists planning to do this? And is it really going to happen the way they say it will? Takayuki Furuta, the director of the Future of Robotics Technology Center in Chiba, tells me that they're right on track. He states that a primary goal of the collaboration is to establish international standards for humanoid robot software and hardware—in a similar manner to how techies determined what nuts and bolts and basic programs would comprise a standard computer so many years ago. Phase 1 (planning) and phase 2 (hardware) are complete as of March 2008; phase 3 (software) starts this month. "We're going to be the first country in the world with an official robotics ministry," he says.
In the US, he explains, there's a strong emphasis on developing software, like artificial intelligence and programs for military tools and weapons. But Japan doesn't have a military, so robotics research ends up going into applications for everyday life. And since Japan is a densely populated country with small living quarters, developing compact hardware for utilitarian humanoids becomes infinitely more important.
Perhaps the most important reason why Japan is fit to become the first country in the world with an official robot ministry is because the Japanese aren't afraid of robots. Since the 1950s, the idea of robots as friends has been engrained in the national psyche through animated characters like Astro Boy. "In America, you don't have a very positive image of humanoid robots," he says. "Look at the Terminator! In Japan, robots are our friends. It's part of our cultural background."
A survey conducted last year showed that 40% of Japanese women in their 20s and 30s talk to their computers, while 10% give them names. I'll be the first to admit that the Japanese have a penchant for giving life to otherwise inanimate objects. But most importantly, it's not considered weird at all. Several years ago, it was pretty much expected that single women who lived alone would share their homes with a Furby. More recently, families who couldn't own dogs sought canine companionship from their Aibos. When you look at it this way, it's almost natural that the next step would be full integration of robotics in daily life on a mass scale.
The initiative doesn't end in 2010, but that's the benchmark year by which they plan on having robots doing janitorial work, security, child care, client liaison work and intelligent wheelchairs nationwide. Roboduties will expand to everything else—driving cars, cooking dinner, producing TV shows, marrying humans—by 2020.
Comments
But the U.S. already has a robot workforce. I mean, do you think I would be in this cubicle if I wasn't an artificial automaton?
The day I own a Furbie is the day that Furbies are six feet tall, have a built-in flamethrower, can deal with religious nuts knocking on the door, and make me one hell of a Martini.
Those wacky Japanese.
How did they get to the future before us?
@braak:
They took the #37 overpass, detoured at Mullholand clover 96, and went straight on till morning.
@braak: Maybe it helped that their country isn't pushed around by religious fundamentalists trying to actively suppress or discredit evolutionary theory.
@Mrreader: Man, you don't need evolution to know that robots are awesome!
I have to hand it to the Japanese for putting this kind of huge effort into something that there's really very little practical need for. All in the sake of style, and the fact that lots of Japanese folks think it's cool. Bravo.
Quibble: "But Japan doesn't have a military" is a load of bullshit. You can call a spoon a lunar rover all day and night, but that doesn't make it anything but a spoon.
-Kle.
It's more than a bit disingenuous to say that Japan doesn't have a military. Their "Self Defense Forces" have aircraft carriers, battlegroups and nuclear submarines. The Japanese Navy and Airforce are larger than the United Kingdom's and far more capable than China's or Russia's; they are second in the world solely to the USA. The Japanese don't advertise this fact much, but it's true.
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I'm very surprised and impressed by how much progress they are making.
What's interesting to me is that the Japanese make so many _humanoid_ robots. The USA has plenty of civilian robots, but they're functional and non-humanoid (think Roomba, that croissant sorter that was posted a few days ago, or the robot that made your car). When we get self-driving cars, those cars will be robots for all intents and purposes, but 5 gets you 10 that they will look just like today's cars - no robotic chauffeur in the driver's seat for Americans.
Terminator kicks ass and I'm all for robots. More seriously, I like the idea that once I become old and feeble there will be a means for me to some retain self-sufficiency, assuming of course my brain doesn't turn to Jell-O. However I think, even thought it may be at true the Japanese are ahead of the curve, Takayuki Furuta is exaggerating, probably by more than a little. For instance, define robot, and vending machine does not count.
God I love robots. I wanted an Aibo desperately, but they were way out of my price range when they were still being manufactured. Had to settle for a LEGO Mindstorms kit. And, uh, I did name my computer. :|
I do wish they would quit it with the creepy "life-like" androids though.
soo... Japan wants to destroy all humans, is that it? have they failed to watch ANY of the science-fiction anime that has been bred in their own great nation? ROBOTS = PILES AND PILES OF DEAD HUMANS. I guess a culture who valorizes suicide as a responsible decision just doesn't care much about the oncoming robot apocalypse if it means more exports. thanks alot, you greedy bastards.
If anyone on Earth can, they are definetly running on top of the scoreboard.
I can only hope I never live to see when the robots overthrow their human overloards and use them as an energy source, a' la The Matrix .
@moncapitaine: I'm right with you.
@pandorasmittens: Although, if said robots/androids were a little more Data and a little less Sentinel, I could totally get into that.
@Klebert L. Hall: I think what he meant is that Japan can't openly develop robotics technology for military use.
I've seen Rojin Z...
It's only a matter of time before we're under assault from Geriatric-Cyborg-Nursing-Machine-bots
If this intergration of robitics comesto fruition I'm moving to Japan. And to all those discussing the Japanese military it won't matter in the future because they are going to have a robitic army and mass produced Gundams that will take out anything.
@pandorasmittens: Never happen. Humans are a lousy energy source. They'd probably just kill us.
Robots to replace the Eta and Koreans they can't oppress any more?.. Hmmmm. Progress, i suppose. And i have always suspected the "Transformers" were some sort of wish fulfillment fantasy.
Am i not so bedazzled by the Japanese as permanent pacifists?
Well, i have heard of the 47 Ronin, and know that myths define a culture's personality. And the 47 Ronin is history, not a myth.
I read that American robotics guys think that the Japanese are wasting a lot of energy chasing the humanoid dream, when wheels work so good, and Dean Kaman has a Segway that can climb stairs.
Time will tell.
Japan is going to be th birth place robots Zero One city.
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto....
Japan is in a really sorry position. They don't have a large Latin country on their doorstep.
{Ducks!}
I was at Wiredfest last year and got to see some of those. They were all from Japan. Japan hasn't forgotten Hiroshima so bring on the robot war of 2015!
I would not be surprised if Japan began using robots for military purposes. The JSDF have had trouble meeting recruitment goals for precisely these same reasons. With Japan's increasing security presence on the world stage, it's only a matter of time before we have war robots.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
"Perhaps the most important reason why Japan is fit to become the first country in the world with an official robot ministry is because the Japanese aren't afraid of robots."
no, probably the most important reason is that the Japanese fear foreigners more than they fear robots. They'd rather employ a robot nanny than a Phillipina one.
HOMEWORK:
Go read Mockingbird by Walter Tevis.
Comment on Japan Gears Up to Become a Full-On Robot Nation Japan has a problem with the amount of older citizens and not enough young people for a tax base or even just warm bodies to fill the roles required to support them. Robots fit the bill as home help, if you had people they would require somewhere to live, eat and play... Some of the things Japan also doesnt have is space or food to feed outside workers. To a technologist society brought up on Astro boy what else would they have. -- If you have to ask, you're not allowed to know.
Japanese robots?id be far more concern about the ladder to heaven there building ,something to do with saddam hussien?
No worries if the price/performance ratio of Aibo is maintained.
The Japanese population is aging quickly as their birthrates are low. They really do need helpers for all the nursing home work to come.
Comment on Japan Gears Up to Become a Full-On Robot Nation Let in more immigrants. Problem solved. Any country that refuses to do this deserves to die.
@LISA KATAYAMA:
Weird, I wonder why not? They develop all kinds of other military technologies.
-Kle.
@Brock:
Second only to the USA in Military Strength?
Russia, China, India, Germany and France would probably have something to say about that.
[www.globalfirepower.com]
And when you put the UK right next to Japan, the they're pretty much on a par - it's just that Japan has more artillery and more people, whereas the UK has more tanks and more infantry support. Most other things are even, give or take a few tens of thousands...
[www.globalfirepower.com]
@Metropolis: "Mass Produced Gundams"
Now that is cool. I want one of those!
@FunkyJ:
That site is... misleading. For one thing, the data are several years old. For another, the UK is down to 25 frigates - I don't know what the heck the site is counting as 'naval vessels', but the US certainly doesn't have 2,000 combatant vessels, either. More like 300.
-Kle.
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