I’m pleased to bring GoRobotics an exclusive interview with Angelica Lim of Kyoto University. When I first started writing here at GoRobotics, one of my goals that I stated was to bring more compelling academic research to the general public and enthusiasts because behind lots of jargon and hidden in some grad student’s lab somewhere is a robot waiting for it’s chance in the spotlight.

Let’s get right into things with Angelica.

How did you end up a roboticist? Was it a childhood dream?

I had no idea I wanted to be a roboticist when I was a kid. It started when I was on exchange in France, doing a year of Computer Science classes at the University of Nice. One of our projects was to pick amongst research topics proposed by faculty members, and “Build a Data Server for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)” was one of them. I ended up choosing that on a whim, and our team did a pretty good job coding it up in C++ under her specs. I got called back the next year to help integrate it with a real “live” AUV for a competition in England, and I was hooked. I liked it so much that I put together the robotics team back home in Canada. That was my second robotics competition – hopefully not my last!

How did you end up in Japan working on robots?
The main reason I wanted to come to Japan was simply because the hardware is much more advanced and easy to acquire. Full-size humanoid research platforms have been out in Japan for almost a decade. Only now are companies like Willow Garage starting to gain traction in North America.

On a more personal level, I also felt like my research options would be limited in North America. In the US, robotics research is heavily funded by the military, and therefore it seemed to me, at least that my research would have to conform to very serious and grave goals in order to gain funding. In Japan, robotics applications sound less like “Big Dog” and more like “RIBA Nurse Robot” and “Fan Dancing Robots” . I prefer the Japanese outlook on a future with robots. Does that make sense?

More after the jump …

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The M3-Neony and M3-Synchy were developed as baby bots aimed at testing machine learning software, and specifically to take a look at fine motor skill development. The hardware on this adorable little bot are some typical cameras, a microphone, gyro, accelerometer, and tactile sensors.

I heard about the M3–neony and M3-synchy through this Engadget article but I was disappointed the coverage was so scant. When I began blogging for GoRobotics, I mentioned briefly my loved for HCI, and in particular human-robot interaction – naturally, this article inspired me enough for a second article today. But, as I was excited reading about it, it looks like the article only mentions briefly the research goals of the bots. There is, however, a lot of information about what was used to make them for you gearheads out there. I’m going to comb to find the Japanese lab site if I can, in the meantime here is what’s available so far:

This article at Plastic Pals seems to have more detailed specs on these two robots. The article is long, but features more detailed specs on the bot:

[...] it is 50cm (19.6″) tall, weighs about 3.5kg (7.7 lbs) – about the size of a newborn.  A pair of CMOS cameras for sight and microphones for hearing, as well as gyro and accelerometer sensors, and tactile sensors provide various feedback. The robot has a total of 22 degrees of freedom, powered by high torque (41kg/cm) servo motors sold by Osaka-based robotics company Vstone.

The main focus is on facial expressions and arm gestures, so it is an upper body robot only, with 17 DOF (2 eyes x3, neck x3, waist x2, 2 arms x3), measuring 30cm (12″) tall and weighing 2.5kg (5.5 lbs). The head is equipped with a single wide-angle lens CCD camera, two microphones, a speaker, and 15 LEDs which cause the robot to blush bright red.  Combined with object recognition, speech recognition, and speech synthesis, the robot will be able to communicate in a variety of ways.  The chest and arms appear to be based on Vstone’s Robovie-X hobby robot kit.

If anyone finds out more about what kind of tactile sensors are involved, I’d love to hear about it. Tactile sensors aren’t something I hear about a lot and I’d love to put together an article on what’s out there.

You can catch a video here, and do check out the Plastic Pals article – they have a great gallery of these baby bots.

David is probably going to hate me for this, but an email just popped up on the Robotics Society of America mailing list from David Calkins, saying:

So, The All-Japan 3kg Sumo Tournament is Dec 21st in Tokyo.

Fujisoft gave me 2 seats to go, all expenses, … [and] I’m giving away the tix.

Want ‘em?

You gotta win ‘em.

In order to win the tickets, you have to mail your completed Sumo robot to David, where he will compete them in a normal Sumo tournament on December 6th. The two best robots from the tournament will win tickets to Japan!

For more details contact David directly. If you don’t currently have a Sumo ‘bot, get to building! Or, buy a kit and soup it up!

Update: This just in from David, “Luis Reyna and Alex Eisner won the sumo contest, and tix to Japan”. Congratulations to Luis and Alex! Let us know how the trip goes.

A new Japanese robotics magazine, Robot Life, has polled 500 Japanese females to ask them who was their favorite commercial robot. The grand winner was the PaPeRo robot, pictured at left, built by NEC. Also making the top 10 list (though, at a dismal 10th), is our friend Robonova. Wakamaru and Manoi were also in the list. Judging from the list, it appears that young Japanese females prefer style over substance – any surprises here?

Here’s the complete list:

1. PaPeRo
2. Ifbot
3. Wakamaru
4. Robofie VS-1
5. Nuvo
6. Manoi PF01
7. Vision Nexta
8. KHR-2HV
9. RB 1000
10. Robonova I

I have to say, though, that I’m surprised Plen and Asimo didn’t make it on the list.

From Loving the Machine and Engadget

Related:

• Japanese Company to Rent Hello Kitty Robo and Ifbot
• Chinese Huitong Robot Does Swordplay!
• Wakamaru Is Coming to Live with an Elderly Japanese Near You!
• Robofie Will Give RoboNova a Run For Its Money
  
• World’s First Robot Department Store to Open in Japa
• e-Nuvo, Nuvo for Educators
• Take Servo Magaine’s Readers Survey and Enter to Win A RoboNova
• Kyosho Announces Manoi AT01
  
  

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PeopleStaff, an employment agency in Japanese, is adding robots to its usual roster of people. PeopleStaff is recommending companies recruit Hello Kitty Robo and Ifbot. The positions are receptionists and hospital care, respectively. One wonders if the company is also considering a name change.

  The International Robot Exhibition (IREX) is going on right now in Tokyo, Japan! The 4 day long exhibition is featuring over 200 companies and some really cool robots. It looks like about the only site really covering the event is Akihabara News.

The PacMan robot at IREX (with video) is currently making big waves in the blogosphere. It looks vaguely like a FireFighting area with ghosts.

Also featured at the conference is Sora, the receptionist robot by In The Sky. This is similar to the robot information booth that was shown off at the recent World Expo. You’ll also want to gawk take a look at the ACTROID robot/android. This robot, complete with a plastic miniskirt, looks eerily human. Welcome to the uncanny valley.

Bandai’s companion robot will also clean your floors. No word on any relation to the Scooba, but the two probably have met before.

Fujitsu’s robot to guide customers around stores. Complete with large red "stop" button. Coming to a WalMart near you. At least, that’s my guess, or something similar.

Motoman’s Robar, the drink serving robot.

And, of course, yet-another-walking robot from Kondo. It’s movement looks extremely similar to the RoboNova robot from Hitec (mentioned in this post). Perhaps they’re using the same software/cheap-programming-labor-from-China.

However, hands down, IMHO, the cutest robot so far is the ZMP Nuvo ‘bot, which we’ve covered before. This little guy is pretty adorable. Gotta love the one glowing eye.

It is exactly the catchiest name I’ve heard (but volumes better than "Qrio"), but Wakamaru is the latest in Japan’s bid to take over the world with robots. That and help out their rapidly aging population.

Wakamaru, weighing in at 30kg, 3ft tall, and anywhere from $9,000 to $14,000 USD (Wired says $9,000, BBC says $14,000), better be something special. And, if all the claimed features are true, it is.

Wakamaru’s website has pictures and videos of the friendly yellow robot. It has a claimed battery life of 2 hrs and a slew of sensors, including 2 cameras (front mounted and omnidirectional), 4 microphones, and touch sensors. He also has 2 4 DOF arms. But, before you rush out and buy one take note that it won’t work well on surfaces with more than 1cm of unevenness (read: needs very smooth floors).

The folks at MontaVista Software (what’s powering Wakamaru) say, "Its primary goal for the Japanese market is to provide companionship … be with (patients) like a health-care provider."

Also of note is the website of Toshiyuki Kita, the designer of the robot.

Oh, and it’s Linux powered, so I fully expect to see a wave of hacks coming from across the pond.

Google News provides an excellent roundup of articles about Wakamaru.