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ROBO-ONE Helper Robot Contest - Part 4 of 4

=Continued from Part 3 of 4=

Last but not least, here are two cute robots that took part in the competition.

One is TOKOTOKOMARU developed by Team TOKOTOKO. TOKOTOKOMARU usually wears a kimono but this day it had a Halloween costume on.

 

And it changed its costume during a demonstrative fashion show.

The robot Kumataro made by Team MSS (MSS stands for 'mo-sugu sanju' meaning "I'm almost 30!") was supposed to look like a bear going shopping with a robot on his shoulders. The bear had an ultrasonic sensor which made a cart and a smaller bear follow him. It was very cute as if they were all going shopping together but unfortunately I didn't get that part with my camera.  The following is how Kumataro was being operated.

After the competition, one of the store clerks commented "In the beginning I kind of broke out in a nervous sweat because I didn't know how I should interact with the robots, but at the end it was fun and I was happy to be able to lend a hand." "I can now imagine the day when a robot will really come to my store to shop," said the other.

Says one of the judges Sadahiro Arai, Manager of Tsukumo Robot Kingdom (a robot specialty retail store in Akihabara), "Perhaps us store clerks will be replaced by robots sooner than the shoppers."

Yoshinori Haga, Manager of the Advanced Technology Team at Bandai and one of the organizers of this contest, said that there were two things that happened in the past couple of years that made this kind of competition possible. One is the fact that the hobbyists' humanoid robots have become larger in size and secondly the advancement in the remote control systems. These two factors combined, "you start to become able to do really interesting stuff with these humanoids."

So are any of these robots going to be commercialized anytime soon?  There were no talks about that during the event. Haga is quick to acknowledge that there are still lots of issues to overcome before any shopping robot can be productized. But "we need to stretch ourselves with a higher goal. Or else we won't make improvement." 

=END of ROBO-ONE Helper Robot Contest article=

ROBO-ONE Helper Robot Contest - Part 3 of 4

=Continued from Part 2 of 4=

Let's take a look at the other robots that entered the contest.

The one that seemed to be most popular among a certain genre of the audience - women in their 50-60s who just happened to be shopping at the mall that day and had stopped by to see what was going on - was Doka Harumi made by Team Doka Project. Harumi was wearing a red dress and had the most number of motors (54) among all, enabling it to make movements that were not possible with other robots. Harumi bought a necklace and asked the store clerk to put it on her.

Whereas all the other robots paid in either cash or the prepaid IC card Suica, Doka Harumi was the only robot that paid with a credit card. She was even able to sign her name (although she needed help in getting the pen and pad in the right position).

Meanwhile, there was just one robot that didn't have a shopping bag or cart. That was the yellow Working Automo by Team Kyushu. The robot's abdominal opened up to be a container. This was a unique approach but it had a hard time walking/balancing after it put its purchase into the container.

Also Team Kyushu used the PlayStation controller to operate the robot because they thought that it would be easier for regular consumers to use. 

=Continues to Part 4 of 4=

ROBO-ONE Helper Robot Contest - Part 2 of 4

=Continued from Part 1 of 4=

So who were the winners?

Third place went to the humanoid robot Dynamizer made by the Sugiura Family. Dynamizer is already well known in and outside of Japan as a robot that does many outdoor activities - such as skiing, fishing and mowing the lawn. Tomio Sugiura (dad) is CEO of Sugiura Machine Design Office. Below Dynamizer tries to buy a pair of socks and he succeeds in getting another pair for free. (Haggling got extra points.)

Second place was FIVE developed by Robot Force, the robotics division of L.L.Palace. FIVE was one of the larger robots -if not the largest - standing 80cm high and weighing about 7kg. From the back, it looked like a 3-4 year old boy going shopping. Below is a photo of FIVE and a video taken during a demo. It was unique in a way that it had 2 buttons on each side of its head and it asked the store clerk to press either of these buttons to say yes or no to questions.

And first prize winner was the Sumii Family that developed Arimoplena - which was by far the most stable robot at this competition. Below are 2 videos of Arimoplena. You can see how the robot was operated in the second video. Besides the supreme camera, audio and manipulation techniques, there was one more clever aspect about this robot that I thought is notable and probably really important when thinking about commercializing this kind of robot in the future.

That is, Arimoplena was constantly generating sounds to let the humans around it know what it was doing or what it was about to do. For example, when it was walking it would say "Teku teku" and when it was turning it would repeat "Kuru kuru" - both words that describe these movements in Japanese. Allowing humans to easily figure out what the robots are thinking/doing is key for them to be adopted in society. It can be pretty scary and dangerous if we couldn't.

The champion Sumii Family (photographed below) consists of Kazuhiro Sumii (right), Nanako Sumii (middle) and their daughter Arina Sumii. They plan to use the 1 million yen (about 9,600 U.S. dollars)　prize to build future robots.

Below is the award ceremony.

=Continues to Part 3 of 4=

ROBO-ONE Helper Robot Contest - Part 1 of 4

GetRobo was in Japan to cover the finals of ROBO-ONE's first Helper Robot Contest on Sept. 6, 2008. Ten robots that passed the preliminary  gathered in an underground mall in Kawasaki City to compete. Initially the plan was to have the robots actually walk into the shops inside the mall, but the organizers decided that was too difficult and set up mock-up storefronts in a plaza instead. The store clerks and merchandise were real. Each robot was given 10 minutes to buy something from each of the two shops that were set up, and then walk back to the starting line with the purchases. Besides competing with time, the store clerks were asked to rate the robots depending on how natural the interactions were.

The robots were operated remotely using Wi-Fi. The operators were in the same plaza but had their backs against the shops which were about 50 feet away so they had to see everything through the cameras on the robots. Each robot was unique in terms of payment methods, how they carried the purchases and the way they communicated with the clerks.

The first video below is Aero-Blue developed by Team CAP Project. This was the only robot that used a cart which made it easier for it to bring home heavy things. The money was in a small plastic capsule inside the cart.

Next is ARRC-X which was developed and operated by Terukazu Nishimura, the Chairman of the ROBO-ONE committee himself. He wanted to participate in this inaugurating event to see how difficult the task might be. ARRC-X was popular in a demonstrative fashion show that preceded the shopping competition due to its girlish walk and the outfit which was made by Mrs. Nishimura. Chairman Nishimura's comment after the contest - "I felt really frustrated with the maneuvering."

To fully appreciate what went on during this competition, we must understand that just 6 years ago when ROBO-ONE first started, the robots could not even walk. For the biped robots to be able to walk inside a real mall - an uneven surface - is an accomplishment in itself.

And these are all hobbyists - not corporations that can spend millions of dollars developing their robots. How much do these robots cost?  "I would say around 400,000 to 500,000 yen (4,000 to 5,000 dollars)," according to Nishimura.

In the early days of ROBO-ONE, recalls Nishimura, "we knew that the robots would definitely fall, so we wanted all contestants to come up with ways for the robots to stand up on their own."

So now most of the robots are capable of recovering on their own. One example is shown below. KromKid developed by Team kupakuma. KromKid had a hard time bringing back the merchandise because it kept losing balance from the weight of the goods. This was a typical problem with other robots too.

=Continues to Part 2 of 4=

New Helper Robot Project Sets Off - Here's the shopping list!

The organization that holds the ever-popular robot competition ROBO-ONE has come up with a new contest - build a helper robot that will REALLY help humans in our everyday lives AND MOREOVER that will sell. The Helper Robot Project aims to entice hobbyists to compete in a series of contests that will test certain skills and if the winning robot's skill is good enough, the sponsoring firm(s) will try to commercialize it.

The first such competition will be around developing a teleoperated biped robot that can shop at a mall while you stay at home. Finals will occur on Sept. 6, 2008, and will require the robots to shop at 3 stores inside the Azalea shopping mall in Kawasaki City. (Azalea and the Kawasaki and Kanagawa Robot Business Conference are cooperating with ROBO-ONE for this event.) The robot will have to pick up a product, communicate with the clerk (bargaining will have a high score) and pay, etc. Unlike the battling ROBO-ONE competition, the teleoperator will not be able to directly see the robot in action and will have to use Wi-Fi. Also the robots will have to walk down a catwalk so that people can judge their strides and looks.

And to compete in the finals, you must first win the preliminary contest which will be held on Aug. 17. There are 3 events in the preliminary - 1. picking up hard boiled eggs and putting them in a container, 2. folding a child-size T shirt and 3. a 30 minute endurance race. 

The types of products the robots must shop at the finals will not be announced till after the preliminaries and they may not have anything to do with eggs and T shirts, says Masahiro Sakigawara, General Manager of the Future Robotics Technology Center. GetRobo communicated by email with Sakigawara, who is one of the people leading this project, and he says that these objects were chosen because "we want to see more advancement in hand dexterity." 

At least one robot seemed to already be making progress on building a robot that can fold T shirts (a task that at least one of my friends complains that her boyfriend can not accomplish). A robot made by the MARU Family that is very well-know in the ROBO-ONE world is photographed below. (Thank you for the photo, Sakigawara-san!)

   

The robot can be of any size but must weigh under 30kg. And it MUST be a biped humanoid. The reason for ROBO-ONE insisting on humanoid robots is because "we think that human-shaped robots are most compatible with our society and that they can most easily work in our everyday environment" says Sakigawara.

Unfortunately you will have to be residing in Japan to participate in this competition but you can read more about it on ROBOT WATCH (Japanese).

An update on this competition here.

ROBO-ONE Charges

According to the official website of ROBO-ONE, the organizers of the popular humanoid robot competition will start charging entrance fees from spectators. It used to be free to get in and watch the robots battle but starting from their 11th tournament - scheduled on March 24 and 25 - they will start charging about $15 per person. Elementary school children and younger are free. Seems that the competition has become too popular and they want to curb the number of onlookers as well as secure some extra income for future use.