Japan Robot Week, the two-day biennial showcase of the latest in robot technology, kicked off in Tokyo on Wednesday, with gadget-makers showing what the future of servant robots may look like.
This year’s event comes after a commitment by the Japanese government last year to spend around $990 million in robot technology over the next five years. The money will be used to stimulate the service bot industry by providing support to local projects, aiming to expand the market to 20 times it current value, to around $13.8 billion.
Pepper, the Softbank robot that’s been making headlines, made an appearance at the show. The retail-focused service bot has made a name for itself in stores across Europe and Japan, and this month the company revealed that there are plans to bring the bot to American audiences. Pepper helps customers with common queries and can take orders to save visitors time.
This bot, which looks like it just walked off the set of Team America, is modeled off of Japanese actor Tori Matsuzaka.
Some depended on humans to operate. The creation by Nedo, below, is a powered suit.
Need help carrying stuff? The Carry PM2 follows people around with their bags.
Not all the robots had entirely practical functions. Seed Solutions’ bot, below, danced to the music playing in the Big Sight conference hall.
It was a tiring day for the bots.
It may not be quite the same as The Jetsons, but if the future of robotics looks anything like this, we’re in for a treat.
