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Talking about fuRo, Chiba Institute of Technology, which the research center fuRo is a part of, will be newly establishing the Department of Advanced Robotics in April 2006. Perhaps the beginning of a movement to set up robot-specialized departments at Japanese universities.....
According to a blog by fuRo (Future Robotics Technology Center), the car company Nissan ran a job-placement ad on the most recent issue of The Robotics Society of Japan journal. Nissan seems to be looking for a researcher that will work on "robotic intelligence for the automobile." Both Honda and Toyota are well known for their R&D in robotics but Nissan too?
Toyota announced that it will start offering test drives on its robotic single passenger vehicle i-unit. i-unit was a big hit at the Aichi Expo last year but this is the first time the company is offering rides to the general public. You can reserve a slot through this website. But you have to have a drivers license.
ROBO-ONE, the organization that holds the annual biped robot fighting competition announced that it plans to assemble the world's first fighting match in outer space in 2010. The robots will be sent up via satellite, shot out into space with life rope and be controlled by humans on earth. How to survive in vacuum, heat and radiation are only some of the technological issues to overcome. Shall we call this the Japanese version of the X-Prize?
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will be funding 1.52 billion yen (about 13 million U.S. dollars) into new initiatives for robot development in fiscal 2006 (from April 2006 to March 2007). The new initiative has 3 themes, advanced industrial robots, robots that work under extreme environments and service robots for everyday life. What's new is that for the third category, METI will require the robot engineers to team up with potential users, such as restaurants, security and cleaning companies etc., to actually get the funding.
