(Note: Moved from http://greattohokurevival.blogspot.com/2011/04/mobility-robot-forum-in-tsukuba.html on 2 December 2011)
Tsukuba, Ibaraki Japan, 12 April 2011
Designated in February by the Japanese Cabinet as a robot zone, today Tsukuba City launches the Mobility Robotics Promotion Council (ロボット特区実証実験推進協議会).
Very heartwarming to see - in spite of the circumstances, this forum is packed with about 180 attendees (final attendance >200). The forum is aimed mainly at companies and groups that are interested in participating in this initiative.
This mobility robot zone is one part of Robotics Tsukuba, an plan to make Tsukuba a global hub for service robotics.
Opening remarks: Kenichi Ichihara, Mayor of Tsukuba City
The Great East Japan Earthquake (sentence interrupted by M 6.3, Level 4 earthquake) showed how quickly an advanced society can be paralyzed by disaster. However, it is clear that science and technology will play a big role in recovery.
Robotics will play major role in cleaning up Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. AIST is already acting in this regard.
Greetings from Cabinet Councillor Ichiro Takahashi
Tsukuba will give birth to scientific and technological leadership needed for dealing with disasters and helping society in all countries.
Tsukuba Robot Zone will serve as the basis for mobility robotics practices, rules and regulations for all of Japan. A major issue is incorporating mobility robotics with daily living, including the activities of care givers.
Setting up this Robot Zone required cooperation of MLIT, the police, the city and several other agencies.
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Keynote speech: Takao Kitabata, Title: Japan's Globally Winning Growth Strategy - Tsukuba and High Technology Industry Hold Key
Last year, China passed Japan to become the second largest economy in the world. But China's population is ten times Japan's. More significantly, Korea is rapidly catching up to Japan on a per capita basis and may well pass Japan in a few years.
Population bonus: When the numbers of economically productive age brackets is large and drives economic development. For Japan, this was 1950-1990, Singapore 1965-2010, China 1965-2015, Korea 1965-2015, Vietnam 1970-2020, Malaysia 1965-2020, India 1970-2035, Philippines 1965-2040.
China's car sales forecast to peak at more than 3 million per year. The U.S. peak was 1.7 million; Japan's peak was 800 thousand per year.
Nuclear energy will continue to be a major Japanese export because of quality and reliability.
Only Japanese companies deliver on time and at quoted price. Ordered from European company, a nuclear plant will be late; ordered from an American company, the cost will end up drastically higher than quoted.
China will not catch up with Japan in genuineness. Chinese buyers buy cosmetics, even Chinese medicines, in Japan because they can trust that they are getting the real thing.
Japan's strengths going forward: environment, energy, health
Japan's ageing population and its demand for care will be the source of Japan's growth in health care. This is the main opening for robotics.
One challenge for medical robotics is the government's approval standards. Currently, this is the same standard as for drugs: no approval if chance of accident. This is a major reason for Robotics Tsukuba, to provide safety testing so robotics can advance commercially.
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Presentation: Atsushi Yokoyama, Director, Economic Development, City of Tsukuba, "Making the Tsukuba Robot Zone"
Tsukuba already has several institutes and universities that are developing mobility robots and testing them within their grounds. Tsukuba wants to build on this and make Tsukuba a global hub for robotics companies, especially start ups. The Robot Zone was created to provide infrastructure and legal ground support for these companies.
Industrial robots are designed to work isolated from their operators. Accidents can be prevented by spacial separation and barriers. Similarly, traffic rules for cars are designed to prevent contact between cars and people.
In contrast, contact between "vehicle" and pedestrian will be unavoidable for mobility robots. This takes safety engineering into new territory.
Tsukuba Robot Zone will begin with four robots: Segways, Marcus intelligent wheelchair (AIST), micromobility robot (AIST), and Hitachi's PMV with autonomous mobility.
Tsukuba Robot Zone now includes a three-year project and is expected to lead to compact city experiments involving electric vehicles (Tsukuba 30 Project).
Tsukuba Robot Zone Subcommittees: compact city mobility robotics (MR) testing, safe society MR testing, testing of MR for elderly, MR-based tourism, local government liaison, and commuter manners.
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Presentation: Hirohisa Hirukawa, AIST, "What NEDO's Project for Commercializing Service Robots Expects of Robot Zone Experiments"
Background: Medical robotics in Japan is hampered by the main safety standards center being in Germany.
Objectives:
- Set safety standards
- Establish a testing organization for these standards
- Establish certification organization for these standards
Hmm. Crash test dummy in wheelchair
Robot Safety Center facilities:
- Multipurpose running test course
- Inclined running test course
- Environmental recognition performance test
- Robot running status monitoring equipment
- 3D operation analyzer
- Obstacle approach reproducing equipment
- Crash tester
- Static stability tester
- Collision durability tester
- Load tester
- Mountable assist robot durability tester
- Belt type running endurance tester
- Drum type running endurance tester
- Center of gravity displacement control equipment
- Mountable assistance robot strength tester
- Complex environment vibration tester
- NEDO Project for Commercialization of Service Robots
- Real world experiments including small scale
- Reforming laws and regulations _outside_ scope
- Expectations for Robot Zone
- Large scale real world experiments
- Reformation of traffic laws and regulations
- Beta testing aimed at Special Zone for care robots
Robot Business Promotion Council set up 8 April 2010.
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