31.12.2001

japantoday > features

Robot pets provide comfort and help

Kakumi Kobayashi

TOKYO — A lifelike robot cat closed its eyes and meowed after a young boy rubbed the acrylic fur on its chin at a toy shop in Tokyo. "It's so real, mom," the boy cried as he watched the cat move at the toy section in Takashimaya Co's Shinjuku store right before Christmas.

"Excellent. We should take this," said the boy's mother, 26-year-old Junko Shibata, who seemed to have no qualms about shelling out the cash for the furry friend priced at 185,000 yen.

The battery-powered cat, equipped with 15 built-in motors, can express its "feelings" by moving its body after sensing the movement of people around it.

Omron Corp, a major Japanese maker of automated control equipment, has decided to jump on the bandwagon in the robot industry and start developing digital creatures that can entertain, comfort and help their human owners. The firm launched the new cat in November.

"Our robot cat may be too pricey, but this is our first product in the market of robot pets. We want to monitor who really wants our product despite the price tag," said Toshihiro Tashima, who leads Omron's project on electric pets.

At the toy shop in Tokyo, most visitors said they would not mind bringing home such critters and hope that prices will drop.

"If the price of the robot cat went below 100,000 yen I would buy it and keep it close to me and my family members in our house," said 38-year-old Michiaki Suzuki.

Suzuki was one of many cat lovers at the shop who are dying to adopt a robot companion. He lives in a condominium where pets are not allowed.

"Robot pets are preferable even in condos where pets are allowed," Michitaka Fukuda, 30, said, complaining about too many dogs around his condo in the western Tokyo urban city of Tama. "I would pay around 50,000 yen for one of the cats."

The Japan Robot Association (JARA) calls mechanical devices for purposes such as entertainment and education in everyday life "personal robots" in its report in May on the Japanese robot industry in the 21st century. The category does not cover robots for medical and welfare services.

In 2010, personal robots will have a 50.2% market share of the entire Japanese robot market, almost double a 28.4% share for formerly popular robots for industrial manufacturers, the report said.

The industry's entire market scale is estimated to total 2.99 trillion yen in 2010, said the association consisting of 56 Japanese companies involved in the industry.

The boom of various robots for personal and family use in Japan was triggered in 1999 when Sony Corp launched its popular series of Aibo robot pets.

The market has since grown steadily with newcomers including sophisticated creatures such as a humanoid robot that can walk down the stairs itself and electric jellyfish that can swim.

The trend prompted the JARA to release the first projections on personal robots, JARA spokesman Shigeaki Yanai said.

It is very possible robots that provide companionship for people or help the disabled will be hit products in the near future, the general manager at the JARA's Administration Department said.

There was much enthusiasm to develop or improve machines for industrial manufacturers until the early 1980s, which helped make Japanese industrial robots competitive in the global market. But now, large-scale industrial robots are not as profitable.

"Such robots require much space and many difficult preparatory tests before full-fledged operations. So the high-cost products do not sell as well in the recent economic downturn as they did in the past," Yanai said.

"Our industry needs new customers such as individuals who want personal robots," he said. (Kyodo News)

December 31, 2001

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