The International Robotics Association (IFR) recently reported that the robot density had doubled worldwide from 2015 to 2020. We were talking about industrial robots, not new neighbors. But in Japan you sometimes have the feeling that the robot, i.e. the autonomously working machine, is gradually moving out of the factories and into people’s everyday lives. Here he takes on activities that people would not be so happy to do elsewhere. Five examples.
Information robot Pepper is used in museums, but also in old people’s homes and has the ability to be self-ironic.
(Photo: Thomas Hahn)
Inform
The Mihama Municipal Energy Environment Learning Center has a clear mission. Among other things, it aims to make the advantages of nuclear energy clear to the local offspring. Of course, because very close by on the coast of Fukui Prefecture is the old Mihama 3 nuclear reactor, which was shut down for ten years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 and was briefly connected to the grid again in 2021. There isn’t much going on here on a normal Saturday. Nevertheless, there is Pepper, a 1.20 meter tall white information robot with hands, button eyes and a screen in front of the chest.
Pepper has been on the market for a few years and is almost a classic from the Japanese media group Softbank. Pepper is programmed in such a way that he can react to people using face and voice recognition. The device is not only used in museums or shops, but also in old people’s homes as a conversation partner for lonely seniors. It is nice. And it has a sense of humor. In 2017 a Pepper said in an interview with the US news broadcaster CNN when asked whether he was a boy or a girl: “Well, in the end, I’m just a robot.”
Visually a mixture of Mainzel male and penguin, acoustically more related to the dog: Lovots can whine heartbreakingly.
(Photo: Thomas Hahn)
Love
In the Robotics Studio on the aisle of a shopping center in Tokyo-Shinjuku, the toy looks carefully at the visitor. The robots on the counter look like dolls come to life. But the real stars of the store are the Lovots, who do their laps on a small stage or take a rest at their charging stations. Lovot is reportedly the world’s first love robot. Lovot inventor Kaname Hayashi was inspired by the cute Pepper, among other things. Hayashi wanted a robot of a different kind. Not one that could perform functional tasks with metallic perfection – but one that was just there and loved people. Difficult for a machine.
But Lovot can do it. At least he creates the illusion that he can. Various sensors and cameras are built into and on Lovot’s small material body, with which he can record the whims of his owner and process them into reactions via artificial intelligence. Lovot, half Mainz male, half penguin, whines, drives around on his own, moves his little wings as fluently as a little dancer. And the glances from his twinkling, reflective screen eyes are so heartbreaking that you could forget what a nifty, algorithm-driven machine this device is. Many people in Japan live in cramped apartments and the cities are often not good for walking. For them, Lovot is the perfect pet. House-trained, undemanding, courteous. Besides, Lovot doesn’t die. It just breaks sometimes.
Heilig’s Blechle: Mindar prayer robot in the Kodaiji Zen temple in Kyoto.
(Photo: Thomas Hahn)
Pray
Mindar had to pause temporarily in the pandemic. Of course, this was not because the Buddha monks at the Kodaiji Zen Temple in Kyoto feared that their prayer robot could catch the corona virus. It was about Mindar’s human visitors. Because of the distance requirement, they should not come together in the prayer room when the Android quotes the teaching of the Heart Sutra with folded silicone hands. Mindar is a manifestation of the deity Kannon, who in the Buddhist pantheon has the task of accepting the prayers of the burdened. Tensho Goto, Kodaiji’s venerable and humorous priest, once commissioned the device from the famous robot researcher Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka. It should make Buddhism more attractive to young people. After the premiere in 2019, media all over the world became interested in Mindar. A praying robot – where can you find something like that? Goto and his colleagues in the Kodaiji Temple, on the other hand, found the development from statue to moving sculpture quite logical. “This is the evolution of teaching,” they shared. In other words: religion is not a thing of the past.
Who says that a security employee always has to be beefy? The SQ-2 safety robot is living proof of the contrary.
(Photo: Thomas Hahn)
Watch out
In Japanese shopping malls, an SQ-2 can casually join the crowd. The SQ-2 is a quiet, unpretentious robot. Unlike Pepper, Lovot or Mindar, he does without looks or gestures. He probably doesn’t even want to attract attention – which he fails, however. A slender egg on edge with a circling wreath that curves through the aisles between passers-by is still a bit unusual for the time being. That should change, because the SQ-2 represents the new generation of security guards. It is a security robot that, with its sensors and image recognition, can certainly be more attentive than a human. The Japanese manufacturer states that the SQ-2 is “not only a solution to the problem of labor shortages (…), but also contributes to cost efficiency because it is ready for use at all times, with the exception of charging time”.
Bad luck for Servi, the serving robot: it can only dispense food and drink, but not collect. That’s why there is no tip.
(Photo: Thomas Hahn)
Waiters
Japan’s aging society by no means suppresses the fact that there could soon be jobs for which no one can be found. That’s why she has such high hopes for robots. Servi, a new employee for the catering industry, was born out of this concern. You can meet him at the branch of the Yakiniku King restaurant chain in Tokyo-Itabachi, for example. In the Yakiniku King, people usually eat on the table grill. You order more often, and because the branch in Itabashi has 156 seats, waiting here can be a hassle. In Japan, the pandemic trend towards contactless coexistence is also taken very seriously. So the future should belong to Servi.
He is a relative of Pepper from Softbank. Like him, Servi can be polite. For example, when he brings food, he says: “Thank you for waiting.” But even his stature shows that he is not there for small talk. Servi is a tray on wheels. The people in the kitchen load it up and enter the table number. Then Servi drives off, evades people on the way, parks in front of the desired table and returns to the kitchen as soon as the loading areas are empty again. However, the guests have to take the plates down themselves. Servi also does not take payments or give recommendations about the menu. Even in Japan, people still have to do a lot themselves.