Tech watch: Robotics is a fast-growing field with big opportunities



Sunday, June 3, 2001



Robotics is moving into its next growth phase. Last year, the industrial robot market totaled $1.4 billion, compared with $615 million in 1995. The United States ranks third in robot sales, behind Japan and Western European countries (Germany leads). But, according to the Robotics Industries Association, the use of robots in the electronics industry should grow an average of 35 percent a year over the next several years.

There are four categories of robotics. The first and largest category is industrial robots used in manufacturing industries for welding, painting and feeding components into machines. These robots are programmable, but not smart. If something goes wrong and an assembly line breaks down, the robots keep moving, accomplishing nothing.

The second group is personal robots, most of which are expensive high-tech toys. Honda Motor Co. sells Robopal, a 2-foot-tall home security robot that patrols your home, walks up and down stairs and senses danger with ultraviolet sensors.

The third area is the medical field. T.J. Tarn, director of the Center for Robotics and Automation at Washington University in St. Louis, said one of the most exciting recent developments is the use of robots in surgery. Surgical robots can do everything from tying sutures to moving cameras on voice commands.

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Coming Soon to Your Home: Blaze-Battling Robots

Anne Eisenberg New York Times Service

Friday, June 1, 2001

NEW YORK To Jacob Mendelssohn, an engineering professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, the smoke detector is a fine piece of technology. But it is a limited one – while it can tell if a fire has started, it cannot do anything to stop it.

For that, most people have to rely on a fire department. And that, Mr. Mendelssohn recalled thinking years ago, can be a problem. “I realized that my smoke alarm could go off, but by the time the firefighters arrived, my house could burn down,” he said.

To address that problem, and because he has always loved robots, Mr. Mendelssohn came up with an idea: firefighting robots for the home. Since no such thing existed, he came up with another idea: a robot firefighting competition, open to designers of all ages. Robots would search for a fire, and the one that was the first to find and extinguish the flames would win.

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SONY | SonyInfo | News | Press Release

To read SONY last press release, go there.

R2-D2, where are you? The robot’s slow evolution

By Zillah Bahar

(IDG) — Scientists have fantasized for decades about a future when robots will take over mundane household chores and give us more leisure time. Yet the types of robotic devices introduced to the market so far have typically been more about novel entertainment than practical uses.

But, the consumer market for robotics products appears to be in the process of changing for the better, though it’s a slow transformation to be sure. Thanks to lower manufacturing costs and the improved performance of mass-produced computers, a number of small companies are starting to offer consumer robots that can clean and maintain a household. The problem, for the moment at least, is that these products aren’t likely to attract consumers who aren’t already jazzed about robots. So far as performance and price are concerned, they’re still no match for their conventional counterparts.

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Joe Engelberger, a pioneer in the U.S. robotics industry, believes that companies developing robots for the consumer market have been pursuing a flawed business strategy by offering single-function products that can be used for a few hours a week, at best. For a robotic device to be cost-effective, he says, it must be capable of doing many household chores so that it is useful around the clock.

Some experts believe these performance issues can be resolved within the decade. Engelberger even argues that a multitasking robot that can provide cleaning services and transport the frail elderly within the home could be market-ready in little more than two years, using existing technology. Unfortunately, so far as the ordinary consumer is concerned, the price of such high-precision robots won’t be right for 25 years, Nourbakhsh contends.

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MIT :: Dino :: Dinosaur Robots For Sale

Matthew Herper, Forbes.com, 05.23.01, 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK – Clink. Clink. Troody, a small robot dinosaur, walks across Peter Dilworth’s desk, jangling as if she has loose change in her pockets. Dilworth, Troody’s creator, hopes the pigeon-sized robot will be mother to a whole race of dinosaur-like robots that will walk around museums, entertaining and educating children.

He is in the process of starting a company, Dinosaur Robots, to commercialize such robots. Dilworth built Troody on a shoestring at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spending about $500,000 over five years to create a two-legged robot that can put one foot in front of the other in a lifelike way. Companies like Sony and Honda have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at that same holy grail.

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thestar.com.my: Business News

Creator of robotic dog sees robots becoming partners for humans

TOKYO (AP) – Sony’s robot master remakes man’s best friend in plastic and microchips and hopes to imbue his machines with a sort of soul, their autonomy showing us something of our own minds.

But Toshi Doi, the father of Sony’s popular robotic dog, AIBO, doesn’t see a future in which robots equal humans. He sees them evolving into important partners. And he believes AIBO, which means partner, is a first step in that direction.

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SONY :: AIBO :: New Colours

To celebrate the second anniversary of the launch of the 1st generation AIBO ERS-110 on May 11th 1999, we have limited edition colours for ERS-210.

They will be available in a choice of three metallic iridescent colours that change like a rainbow when you view them in different lights.

The visor has the same effect. These new AIBOs really look like gems!

The anniversary models will only be available for a limited period while stocks last.

[to order…]

GENERAL :: MAG :: TIME asia

Japan: Gizmo Nation

Although technology brought the country to its knees during World War II, for the past 50 years Japanese have embraced the notion that salvation is to be found through technical innovation–and the world has benefited from their ingenuity

• EXCLUSIVE! A pop-up manga cartoon titled Maruichi’s Tea Time designed specially for TIME by popular artist Nozomi Yanahara

• Timeline: A look at the rise of technology in Japan (photo essay)

• My Robot, My Friend: Japanese love not only to give their machines names, but also to make them pals

• Viewpoint: Let no one say these citizens are automatons

• Birth of a Robot: TIME takes an exclusive inside look at the design, construction and assembly of “Pino” (photo essay)

• Land of the Rising Gadget: At times, this can seem like an almost fully automated society (photo essay)

• The 10 Smartest Machines: These whiz-bang doo-dads are just around the corner; plus, the 5 dumbest head-scratching devices (photo essay)

• Lonely Inventors: Surprisingly, the country doesn’t always reward its most creative scientific minds

• The Old Ways: Some tasks are still done better by humans

• Local Talent: Ota ward remakes itself

• Cellul-Oids: Japanese cinema is full of mechanical monsters, mayhem and monkey business

• On the Boards: An interactive Shakespeare

• Essay: Ryu Mura

GENERAL NEWS :: TIME ASIA :: Man’s Best

Makota Ishida for TIME

Firms like TMSUK are promoting devices, such as this maid robot, to serve humans.





In a land where people make pets of their gadgets, the root looks set to become the companion of the future

By TIM LARIMER Tokyo



Japanese personalize their machines. They give names to their office PCs and printers, their factory robots, their cell phones, CD players and Game Boys. Such playful intimacy with inanimate objects made of acrylic, silicon and liquid-crystal displays may seem unnatural. But electronic devices are so vital to Japanese lives that they become virtual family members. Indeed, many people spend more time with machines than they do with their relatives. Just watch a schoolgirl on a subway train with her cell phone, checking voice messages, typing in e-mail responses, downloading her horoscope. Her cell phone is her best friend.

The Japanese tendency to anthropomorphize machines is critical to understanding their embrace of technology in the postwar era. As a result of considerable cultural and spiritual indoctrination from educators, artists, writers and the government, the machine in Japan has become an ally, a friend, a partner. And what a loyal companion it has been during the past 50 years. Making machines turned Japan into an exporting giant. Perfecting them made Japan the center of the electronics industry.

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BOOK :: ThinkGeek :: Robo Sapiens
Evolution Of A New Species
Visit the book’s companion web site: robosapiens.mit.edu
“This is one of the most mind-stretching–and frightening–books I’ve ever read. It’s also a tour de force of photography: the images reveal a whole new order of creation about to come into existence. No one who has any interest in the future can afford to miss it.”
— Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Around the world, scientists and engineers are participating in a high-stakes race to build the first intelligent robot. Many robots already exist–automobile factories are full of them. But the new generation of robots will be something else: smart machines that act like living creatures. When they are brought into existence, science fiction will have become fact.
What will happen then?
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