To the sound of music, Parlo raises his arms in the air and calls out in a child’s voice: “Let’s clap in time.” A dozen elderly Japanese watch the little robot standing on the table in front of them in bemusement. They are gathered in the community room of the Fuyo-En rest home in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Not all of them understood what the 40-centimetre humanoid robot had said. ”The robot has become part of our daily life,” says Akira Kobayashi, the Director of the Care Home, which lies in a special economic zone for the promotion of robots. ”Parlo is perceived by some of our ladies as a small child,”
Kobayashi says, as the robot now plays guessing games with the elderly people. ”The robot has been set up with 365 different programs. We use it to improve the mood in our daily relaxation sessions with the residents,” he adds. Parlo was developed by the Fuji Soft company. “The robot’s aim is to create a new relationship between people and computers,” says Eiji Honda, head of the Japanese company’s robot division. Noting that computers have to date been largely tools, he says that “we (now) want to make them partners.” He points to a poster of Astro Boy, a comic figure known in Japan as Tetsuwan Atomu (originally drawn by Osamu Tezuka). That ‘manga’ comic of the 1950s and 1960s, about a boy android who has supernatural powers, was in a sense a forerunner of Parlo. It’s also an indicator of Japan’s enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology and an acceptance of all kinds of robots. Parlo is equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI). For example, he is able to recognise people by their voices and to respond to them.
Japanese industry and researchers are not interested in robots for their entertainment value alone. Robots for services are the focus - particularly Care Robots, on which the industry and the State are co-operating closely.
Japanese society is ageing rapidly, and it is anticipated that there will be a shortage of Care workers (almost half a million by 2020). Toyota Motor has developed a ‘Care-assist Robot’ to help bed-ridden patients get out of bed.
Panasonic has developed a bed, part of which can be turned into a wheelchair. The electronics giant is also working on a series of robot suits, like the battery-powered Ninja model, which will help one to carry heavy objects or even another person. ”Special sensors measure precisely how much strength is needed,” Panasonic spokesperson Yayoi Watanabe says. Honda’s ASIMO and Sony’s AIBO robot dog are other advanced projects. The idea is not for robots to replace Care workers, but rather to assist their human colleagues as helpers. ”To be honest, you can also manage without a robot like Parlo,” Kobayashi says, adding that Parlo is simply another tool for stimulating the elderly to communicate or to enjoy their meals more. The situation is similar with the robot seal Paro, which is also used at the Fuyo-En care home. Although simply a machine, disguised as a cuddly seal in white fur, Paro is able to assist the Care workers to look after patients suffering from depression and dementia. ”Sometimes these patients forget within a couple of minutes what they are supposed to be doing and become anxious,” Kobayashi says. ”Before we introduced the robots, a Care worker had been needed to deal with this situation,” he adds. Now, the engagement with the seal frequently leads to a more cheerful atmosphere – which eases the task of the care workers. This is a key issue in robot development, as Care workers face an arduous task, both physically and psychologically. “While industrial robots can replace factory workers, in the Care sector it is people who will continue to play the main role and the robots will support them. They will live and work along side each other,” says Shiro Sekiguchi, who works for an organisation promoting the use of care robots in Yokohama.
There are difficulties in introducing Service and Care Robots on a wide scale. According to economic research institute Yano, the market for Care Robots is relatively limited market - attributed at least partly to the high development costs, as well as the current lack of functionality in the robots. While Japan already has a large range of robots and related technologies, by no means have all these products achieved market success. Many are at best prototypes. However, deregulation of the Care sector could boost robot development. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shown enthusiasm for robot technology. During a recent visit to a rest home in Saitama, near Tokyo, where he tried out a robot bed, Abe said: “I would like to make robots a pillar of my growth strategy.”
Read More...