{"id":5175,"date":"2020-03-24T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"urn:uuid:371f8c32-91dc-42e8-b8e6-590dc68e3c70"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:48:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T05:48:54","slug":"2003-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kawasakirobotics.com\/in\/blog\/2003-01\/","title":{"rendered":"What Kawasaki Aims for Beyond the Development of Humanoid Robot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Society has been expanding its expectations of the role robots play, looking at them to combat issues such as a declining population due to an aging society and frequently occurring natural disasters. Collaborative robots (cobots) are attracting the attention of industries\u2014some can coexist and work in the same space as humans, and others cooperate with humans working on the same operations. With robots helping take over tasks physically demanding on humans, or supporting humans in an operation, new approaches in how humans and robots work together and new social systems are gradually appearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, or Kawasaki, whose robotics business has a history dating back over 50 years, is a leader in the field of industrial robots used on manufacturing lines in factories. The company is also dedicated to the development of cobots. With a lineup including duAro, a collaborative, dual-armed SCARA robot able to work alongside humans in a shared space, and the Successor robot system, which enables human-robot collaborations through the remote controlling of robots, Kawasaki is opening doors to new ways humans and robots can coexist with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking forward into the future, Kawasaki has engaged in the development of humanoid robots. In 2017, the company unveiled a humanoid robot named Kaleido. Since then, there has been ongoing development to make this robot practical in human society, for example, in nursing care or sites affected by natural disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state of that progress was revealed at the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) 2019, held at Tokyo Big Sight between December 18 and 21. This article introduces the intentions behind Kawasaki\u2019s development of humanoid robots, and the passion it has toward Kaleido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The humanoid robots Kawasaki develops<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kawasaki has manufactured robots for 50 years. Why does a company that mainly manufactures industrial robots used in factory production lines work on the development of humanoid robots? Yasuhiko Hashimoto, President of Precision Machinery & Robot Company, explains. * The interview took place before iREX2019 started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, Japan is behind in the development of humanoid robots today compared to other countries. When we asked the researchers about why that is, they said that it is because most of their research time is spent repairing and maintaining the robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers are hoping to develop a robot that will never fall over. However, similar to raising children, if humanoid robots are not allowed to jump because it is deemed to be too dangerous, then they will never master how to jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, if there were parts available that would not easily break, it would make such a challenge possible. If there is someone around who can repair any damage done, then we can let robots jump without worrying. We want to change the conservative attitude of not trying to take on new challenges by providing durable humanoid robots. We want to establish an environment that would allow breakthroughs.\u201d (Mr. Hashimoto)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kawasaki is among the top five industrial robotics companies in the world, and the knowledge and expertise it has acquired through providing solid, reliable robots in order to avoid interruptions in manufacturing, is put to use here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even for researchers, having robots that do not fail even after a fall is very important to the continuation of their research. Check the article linked below detailing the importance of solid hardware as pointed out by Professor Masayuki Inaba of the University of Tokyo, who is involved in the collaborative research effort, and what sparked the joint project between Kawasaki and the University of Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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