Japan Is Counting on Friendly Robots to Save Its Economy

June 29, 2013 Leave a comment

Japan Is Counting on Friendly Robots to Save Its Economy

By Lily Kuo

570_Kirobo_Reuters

Japan’s space agency announced today that it will be sending a small robot named “Kirobo” into outer space (paywall) to keep Japanese astronauts company. Engineers fashioned the pint-sized robot to be cute, attentive (it will recognize people by their faces), and responsive to questions. A sister robot (“Mirata”) will stay in Japan as backup crew to analyze Kirobo’s performance. The latest automated venture is another sign of the country’s robot obsession. Here are a few examples of how robots are infiltrating everyday life in Japan:As friends

Kirobo’s flight into space is a chance for the researchers to study how well man and robot get along. “I think it’s because when we are children, we often read manga stories about friendly robots. We wanted to use outer space as the setting for other people around the world to see that robots and humans can live together easily,” Tomotaka Takahashi, a professor with Tokyo University who is participating in the project told(paywall) the Wall Street Journal. Friendly robot research is part of the government’s plan to put millions of dollars into building robots that will care for the elderly. Because of Japan’s aging population, it faces a manpower shortage in multiple industries.

As a Robot Rock Band
Earlier this month, a band of robots playing guitars, drums and a keyboard–engineered by researchers at Tokyo University–accompanied pop group Amoyamo in Tokyo.

As Manpower
Early developers of automated industrial robotics, the Japanese government has plans to install one million robots in factories across the country by 2025. In 2005, Japan’s robots already numbered over 370,000 and made up about 40% of the world’s total.

As First Responders
safety crawler” in Japan can carry a person of up to 250 pounds (113 kg). Originally created for a police department in Yokohama, the robot is intended to help transport people hurt after disasters like earthquakes. It’s controlled remotely and has sensors to detect a victim’s vital signs.

As a real-life Iron Man
A giant robot made by Suidobashi Heavy Industry for consumer use is modeled after a 1980s anime storyline called Votoms. The human controlling the robot sits inside it and can motor it around town (picture Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit). Its engineers say it isn’t meant to be a weapon, but it can be programmed to shoot a BB gun when its operator smiles. It can also be operated remotely with an iPhone for firefighting or dusting

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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