Robots Lend a Hand in Japan
Published: May 18, 2008Japan has a deep-seated infatuation with mechanical friends, whether it is with the heroes of manga (comic books) and anime (animation), hard-working industrial robots, or the public relations humanoids of major Japanese corporations. Currently, all eyes are on the service-robot sector. This broad category includes underwater, medical, cleaning, security, fishing, forestry, caregiving, entertainment and pet robots. At present, such robots only make up a small percent of the overall robot market, but expectations for the sector are high. An example is the 2007 International Robot Exhibition due to open this November in Tokyo. Service robots are expected to account for more than a third of exhibits. Basically, the category includes any robot for use outside the factory, but the Paris-based International Federation of Robotics identifies two main types: professional-use robots and private-use robots. Of the former, they estimate that 31,600 were in operation at the end of 2005, the most numerous being underwater robots at 18 percent, cleaning robots at 17 percent, and defense and security robots following at 16 percent.
By comparison, private-use service robots are more numerous and much cheaper. Of the 2.9 million such robots accounted for by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), more than half (1.8 million) were vacuum-cleaning robots like the popular Roomba robot made by the iRobot Corporation in the US. There were also 1 million entertainment and toy and 79,000 lawnmower robots. “Service robots are in the early stage,” says Marc-Antoine Haudenschild, a Credit Suisse Global Research Equity Strategist for Japan. “It is difficult and more expensive to build sensitive, highly intelligent machines, however, the market for service robots with minimal intelligence is doing well.” He notes that the IFR predicts professional service robots to more than double by 2009, and personal-use service robots to reach 5.6 million by 2008.
