GetRobo

Kitakyushu City to Find Out Robot Killer Applications

  So what kind of robots do people want anyway? This is the question that the city of Kitakyushu in southern Japan would like to be answered in the next year.  

　A handful of Japanese municipalities are seriously working on becoming “Robot City” – meaning fostering a strong robotics industry to boost their local economies – and Kitakyushu is one of them. Kitakyushu prides itself in being the home to Yaskawa Electric, one of the world’s largest industrial robot manufacturers.

  Starting this fall, public servants of the city will be visiting local hospitals and senior homes to find out what kinds of jobs the workers there would like to replace with robots.

　Says Takehiko Ishimatsu, a manager at the city’s New Industry Promotion Division who will be leading the effort, “We’d like to find out what the needs are and forward that information to the companies and universities so that they can come up with new robots.” The initial focus will be on elderly and medical care but eventually he would like to visit banks and retail stores as well to research on what their needs are.

 

(PHOTO: The robot team of Kitakyushu City.From left, Mayumi Oda, Takehiko Ishimatsu, Jin Nakano)

  “Sure, one day we may be able to have humanoid robots helping us at home. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon and we’d rather give the companies a near term goal,” says Jin Nakano, also of the city government who will be helping Ishimatsu with this effort.

   “So far most of the robots have been productized from the manufacturer’s viewpoint, and in some cases the robots are too difficult to use or have unnecessary functions. It’s extremely important for the manufacturers to understand the actual needs of potential users,” explains Mayumi Oda, Director of the Robotics Development Support Office at FAIS, an organization that focuses on government, industry and academia cooperation.

  Will Kitakyushu share the results of its research? The needs of elderly care workers may be universal and the information could be useful worldwide. But Ishimatsu says that is “undecided.” GetRobo will have to catch up with them sometime next year.

Safety Guideline

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced a comprehensive safety guideline for the so-called "next generation robots" which are mobile robotic products that move around in the home and community, such as cleaning robots and socially assistive robots.  What is striking (to me) is that the committee that compiled the guideline consists of 16 people from government, industry and academia, and none of them are women.

Robot Award 2006

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) created the annual Robot Award to boost the Japanese robotics industry. The winner of the inaugurating year of 2006 was the cleaning robot developed by Fuji Heavy Industries (maker of the Subaru cars). The robot that cleans the floors of high-rise buildings is able to take the elevator on its own to move around multiple floors. It's contribution for opening up a new market for robots and for cutting cost for the building owners were the reasons to be chosen from 151 other robots. 

Need For More Coordination?

The Japan Science and Technology Agency formed a committee two years ago to coordinate the many robotics related R&D projects underway at various government arms. The goal - quickly develop useful robots with a smaller budget. This was a unique move since Japanese ministries used to be notorious for fighting over budgets and at the end using them to accomplish the same kinds of things.

Well, according to a Japanese blog, the committee recently had a gathering to announce its progress, but interestingly enough, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare was missing. This seems to be due to the fact that the health ministry currently has no robot-related budget. But it is ironic because many of the robots under development are meant to be used in hospitals and for elderly care, which are under the health ministry's jurisdiction.