The Hindu : Front Page : Zipping arms win robot prize

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 21, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Zipping arms win robot prize

Japanese Government pushes robotics technology as the road to growth

— Photo: AP

JIVING TO THE BEAT: Miuro from ZMP wheels about to music from an Apple iPod portable player locked into its body, during a demonstration prior to the Japan’s Robot of the Year award ceremony in Tokyo on Thursday.

TOKYO: A mechanical arm that picks 120 items a minute from a conveyor belt won Japan’s Robot of the Year award on Thursday, defeating a dozen other flashier finalists, including a walking humanoid, a firefighter robot and a transparent torso for simulating surgery.

The Japanese government prize, announced at a ceremony at a Tokyo hall, is the latest effort in this nation’s aggressive campaign to trumpet its robotics technology as the road to growth.

But the message was clear that utility and business, rather than entertainment or academia, are at the forefront of Japan’s new robotic push.

The entries in Thursday’s government-sponsored contest ranged from the educational Mindstorms robot software and robot parts from the Danish toy-maker Lego Group to an industrial robot from Fuji Heavy Industries that resembled a container-on-wheels that could lug 200 kg of pharmaceutical goods.

But the three assembly-line mechanical arms from Fanuc, this year’s winner, were distinguished for their practicality. They are already being used at food and pharmaceutical plants, where sanitation is critical and human error must be avoided, said a Fanuc manager.

Swivelling in an almost manic frenzy, the arms quickly but accurately analyzed camera data of little square pieces scattered randomly on a swiftly moving conveyor belt. The arms picked up the items, using suction cups that blew air in and out at their tips. They then worked together to neatly place them in rows in boxes.

Concerns about food safety have been growing in Japan following a spate of scandals involving makers using old or cheaper ingredients, and falsely labelling products to mislead consumers.

The Fanuc robots have no exposed wiring for easy washing and sanitizing, the company’s spokesperson said. They also work tirelessly for 24 hours straight. And they do not misbehave.

“The trend these days is to try to avoid having human workers at all. People can get dirty and introduce unwanted objects,” he said. He did not say which companies are using the robotic arms.

Among the other finalists in the contest was a transparent body with complex intertwining rubbery tubing inside for honing doctors’ skills for surgery on blood vessels in a simulation developers at Nagoya University say can be tailor-made for each patient.

Tugging too hard on the catheter in the make-believe blood vessel elicits a yelp in an electronic voice from the robot: “That doesn’t feel good.” The robot, called Eve, sells for 250,000 yen (about Rs. 88,000).

“We made it affordable because we want as many people to take advantage of this as possible,” says Seiichi Ikeda, who heads the university-backed venture.

The robot prizes are in its second year. Last year, a wheeled automated vacuum cleaning robot won the top award.

Fujitsu’s 60 cm tall humanoid walking robot with a helmet-like head was an attention-getter at this year’s contest, swaying its body and bending its arms in a graceful ‘tai chi chuan’ dance.

The 6 million yen robot, which has been sold to NASA and University of Hamburg, among others, is meant to help research in artificial intelligence by offering scientists easy-to-use robot hardware, said a Fujitsu spokesperson. “The research can go on without too much hassle over hardware,” he said.

Machinery-maker Komatsu showed a fire-extinguishing robot built like an armoured tank that can be remotely controlled to go near possibly explosive and other dangerous places to spew 5,000 litres of water as far as 100 m — more than three times the distance of a human fireman.

Also on display was the Miuro from ZMP, a 35-cm rolling egg-like machine that wheels about in time to music from Apple’s iPod portable player. The iPod locks into the Miuro.

To handle blood

Another robot that is getting used now is Matsushita’s Hospi robot, which can carry around 400 vials of blood — and can even dodge other Hospi robots and other objects.

The Hospi robots are being used during night shifts at facilities that test blood samples collected from hospitals during the day. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page