Winner of the 4th Robot Award 2010

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has announced the winners from  92 applicants of the "4th Robot of the Year Award" 2010.

Soft Robot wins Grand Prize 2010

METI: Safe Human-Robot Interaction

The winner of the Minister Award Prize 2010 for industrial robots is Toyota Motor Corporation, Ochiai Nekus Inc. Nagoya Institute of Technology and Tokyo Metropolitan University for its low power 80W energy-saving comfortable robot  installed at the Toyota car assembly plant working safely in cooperation with people.

Since 2006, METI has presented the "Robot of the Year" awards in recognition of contributions to market creation and the most promising robots of that year. The award program has resulted in an increase in the number of inquiries received by the winning companies and otherwise helped to achieve increased visibility for robots and achieve market creation.

Venture Business Award was awarded to the Pork Ham Automatic Slitting and Deboner Robot HAMDAS-R developed by Mayekawa. It is a mechanized slitting process assumed to be the most difficult for automation by optimally controlling knives incorporated in vertical multi-joint robots. This system has achieved high or higher yield ration than a skilled-workers do.  The system doesn't cut off the meat but debone with dismantling so the meat is free from the damages caused by knife. Since human hands don't touch the meat, the problem of sanitation and security is highly improved. HAMDAS-R will contribute yield ration improvement and man-power saving.



Japan Machinery Federation President Award was awarded to the Medication Picking Robot System developed by Panasonic Healthcare Corporation.

Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises Chairman Award was awardet to Expliner high pressure transmission lines inspection robot developed by HiBot Inc.

Hisashi Tate Award Miraikan was awarded to "Kibo" Robotic Arm developed by Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NEC Corporation (NEC).

Service robot sector "Excellence Award" was awarded to humanoid robot HRP-4C developed by National Institute of AIST 

Courtesy AIST: HRP-4C

HRP-4C was efficiently developed based on the User Centered Robot Open Architecture utilizing the fundamental robot technologies (RTs) including real-time Linux, RT middleware, robot simulator OpenHRP3, speech recognition and bipedal walking technology which have been studied and developed at AIST .

HRP-4C is expected to be useful in the entertainment industry, for device evaluation for humans working as human simulators, and mechanical products to assist human movements.

Service robot sector "Excellence Award" was also awarded to the strawberry harvesting robot developed by Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (BRAIN) and Esuai Seiko Co., Ltd, and to and joystick driving system developed by National University Corporation Tokyo University of Agriculture and Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. Nissin.

Industrial Robots division "Excellence Award" was awarded to M-1iA light weight and compact high speed assembly robot series developed by FANUC Robot.

Public sector Frontier "Excellence Award" was awarded to FRIGO-M fire-fighting reconnaissance robot developed by Special Equipment Systems Co., Mitsubishi denki and Fire Academy and Fire Research Ministry.

Component Software Division "Excellence Award" was awarded to Module D3 service robot communication kit developed by D3 Technology Co., Ltd.

Robot Award of the Year Winners 2006-2010 (click image to enlarge)

Infonaut/GRB - Robot Award of the Year Winners 2006-2010

World's most advanced Robot Runners

Recently Bloomberg/Business Week has listed 20 of the Worlds's most advanced robots. Surprisingly the list doesn´t include two of the world's most advanced humanoid runners: ASIMO from Honda running 6 km/hr and Toyota's humanoid running 7 km/hr.

The video below shows a Toyota robot displaying balancing skills and running (i.e. feet completely leave the ground with each stride) at 7 km/h.
Toyota Humanoid run


ASIMO run

Robots at the 2010 World Expo

Image: Toyota

The Japan Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo attracted thousands of visitors on Saturday, officials said. At the peak, people waited in line for as long as four hours to gain entry to the pavilion, one of the most popular attractions at the Expo. Visitors said they were impressed by exhibits featuring Japan’s latest robot technologies represented by Toyota's Partner Robot aimed to support people's activities by helping out with nursing and medical care and with housework. Its humanoid form and ability to walk on two legs makes it easier for people accept and bond with. The joints of the hands and arms are coordinated by a sophisticated control mechanism, allowing delicate, human-like movements. As part of the pre-show, the Partner Robot is playing the violin. This virtuoso performance demonstrates the level of Toyota's research and development, which have produced a robot that, in addition to walking on two legs, can accurately finger the violin's strings and move the bow across them to make music.

Chinese Robot Restaurant

At the Shanghai Corporate Joint Pavilion, an eco-building with intelligent technologies, dream-like atmospheres, and interactive experiences, the visitors are welcomed by Performance Robots at the entrance of the pavilion. Inside the pavilion is a brand new "robot restaurant" where all the meals are cooked by an intelligent robot system without any human chefs at all. There is a grand buffet but not free.

Two robots at a restaurant serve dishes from different parts of China for 50 yuan (US$7.33) per person. Four dishes -- chicken cubes in chili sauce, shredded beef with green pepper, sauteed shelled shrimps and shredded meat with beans, are available to visitors. The robots can make 10 dishes every five minutes. A 50 yuan set meal includes two of the four dishes and refreshments in a restaurant seating 50 people. The pavilion invited chefs from different provinces to cook the dishes and every step was programmed into the robots. The chefs found that the dishes made by the robots tasted the same as the ones they had made themselves, according to a staff member in the restaurant. Visitors need only press some buttons to select dishes and the robots collect ingredients, add sauces and seasonings and cook them while diners watch the process.

Haibao Robots

Thirty-seven 1.55-meter tall Haibao robots are helping visitors at the World Expo. The robots have touch screens on their chests to answer inquiries about Expo and transport in six languages, and they can even take photos for visitors. The Haibao robots will be located at Shanghai's two international airports and at the entrances of some major Expo venues.

Infonaut will report directly from the Shanghai World Expo between May 24-27.

Robot assisted walking for workers and elderly

The need for assisting technology is expected to grow in Japan, which has one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world. Three japanese companies are leading the development of robot assisted walkers, Honda, Toyota and Cyberdyne.

Ambient Assisted Living: Robot assisted walking for workers and elderly

Household robot demo in Tokyo

Toyota Motor Corp and Tokyo University’s Information and Robot Technology Research Initiative , IRT, have jointly developed a prototype of a household robot that can clean up rooms, smoothly put away dishes from a dining table and pick up shirts and put them in a washing machine. According to a press release the 155-cm, 130-kg humanoid robot excels in the capacity to distinguish and perceive objects such as furniture and cleaning equipment. The robot is equipped with two arms, five recognition cameras and laser sensors. It gets around on wheels.
The robot also analyzes past failures and corrects its behavior patterns.

Toyota and Tokyo University’s IRT said the robot has been designed to help cope with the predicted labor shortage stemming from Japan’s aging society and low birthrate. The developers said they will keep improving the robot and hope to start marketing it in around year 2015.

See Reuters Video.

Toyota Mobility Robot

Toyota's "Mobility Robot", TMR, was developed with main focus on supporting short-range personal transportation. TMR can stably negotiate steps and slopes and is equipped with an autonomous transportation function for indoor use and with a tracking function so that the robot can follow the user. TMR has a traveling range of 20 km on a one hour charge, can reach a top speed of 6 km/hr, and can climb slopes of up to ten degrees. Weight 150 kg, 100 cm tall when stopped for boarding or alighting and 110 cm tall when in motion. Toyota plans to conduct practical application testing at relevant Toyota facilities beginning in the latter half of 2008.

Toyota personal scooter

Toyota unveiled its Winglet electric scooter, similar to a Segway and incorporating robotics technology from Sony's Aibo lab. The automaker calls it "a personal transport assistance robot, designed to contribute to society by helping people enjoy a safe and fully mobile life. The Winglet is a compact next-generation everyday transport tool that offers advanced ease of use and expands the user's range of mobility.

Smarter robots from Japan

Japanese humanoid developers are competing in robot smartness. Toyota continues to develop robots that can play music. The latetest robot musician is a violin player that can entertain in cooperation with robotic drummers and trumpet players. Toyota´s Partner Robot Group will increase from 100 to 200 researchers in a new robot research center according to Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe.

Toyota has marked the 70th anniversary of its founding by announcing a long-term business plan that calls for the commercialization of its humanoid Partner Robots for jobs like housekeeping and nursing support. The Toyota Global Vision 2020 plan sees robots as a core business for the leading automaker, which also plans to make hybrid technology available for its entire fleet of vehicles.

Competitor Honda continues to develop its humanoid robot Asimo and the robot can now operate with people as well as other humanoids in the same environment. It is the first update since 2006 and the latest version will be serving refreshments at Honda's Tokyo HQ the next two months. Asimos working together will wirelessly share data such as battery levels and the closest unit to a given task. When Asimo's battery level falls below a certain level, it will return to its recharging station and power up. Each robot works autonomously based on the networked information. Another new function allows Asimo to estimate the path of people walking toward it based on their speed and direction and to avoid them by stepping back if necessary. Check out the Honda videos here.

Toyota Partner Robot Vision

Toyota Motor has marked the 70th anniversary of its founding by announcing a long-term business plan that calls for the commercialization of its humanoid Partner Robots for jobs like housekeeping and nursing support. Accoording to the Toyota Global Vision 2020 plan robots will be a core business for Toyota, which also plans to make hybrid technology available for its entire fleet of vehicles.

During the EXPO 2005 AICHI, JAPAN (The 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan) Toyota displayed a variety of its future technologies, based on the theme “The Dream, Joy and Inspiration of Mobility in the 21st Century.” Some of the technologies on display included the personal mobility “i-unit,” the “Toyota partner robots” designed to aid human activities, a next-generation urban transit system called “IMTS(Intelligent Multimode Transit System),” and a fuel cell hybrid bus. http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/emerging_tech/index.html

Toyota’s new guide robot TPR-Robina

Toyota’s new guide robot TPR-Robina, released on August 22, has improved ability to avoid obstacles and operate autonomously, while agile, jointed fingers enable the robot to grasp writing utensils and sign autographs. Further, in addition to being able to communicate using words and gestures, the 60-kg, 1.2-meter tall robot has an image recognition system that allows it to read visitors’ name tags so that it can tailor its directions accordingly. TPR-Robina is working as a receptionist and guide at the Toyota Kaikan Exhibition Hall.
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/07/0822.html