GetRobo Blog English

ROBO-ONE Charges

According to the official website of ROBO-ONE, the organizers of the popular humanoid robot competition will start charging entrance fees from spectators. It used to be free to get in and watch the robots battle but starting from their 11th tournament - scheduled on March 24 and 25 - they will start charging about $15 per person. Elementary school children and younger are free. Seems that the competition has become too popular and they want to curb the number of onlookers as well as secure some extra income for future use.

Need For More Coordination?

The Japan Science and Technology Agency formed a committee two years ago to coordinate the many robotics related R&D projects underway at various government arms. The goal - quickly develop useful robots with a smaller budget. This was a unique move since Japanese ministries used to be notorious for fighting over budgets and at the end using them to accomplish the same kinds of things.

Well, according to a Japanese blog, the committee recently had a gathering to announce its progress, but interestingly enough, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare was missing. This seems to be due to the fact that the health ministry currently has no robot-related budget. But it is ironic because many of the robots under development are meant to be used in hospitals and for elderly care, which are under the health ministry's jurisdiction.

Robot Suit Startup Gets Cash

CYBERDYNE Inc. received a 1 billion yen investment from Daiwa House Industry Co., which now owns 15% of the robotics company that will manufacture and sell the robot suit HAL. CYBERDYNE will use the money to build a research center and manufacturing facility as well as to hire 30-40 engineers. It is initially aiming to sell the suits to hospitals and nursing homes.

Robo Catcher

Robotics startup MechaTrax wants to put its small humanoid robots into the arcade machines. In Japan, an arcade game called UFO Catcher is very popular. Whereas with UFO Catcher you try to pick up a prize - such as a stuffed animal - with a crane, you will manipulate a robot with the proposed new Robo Catcher. Here is a link to a video that shows how it works. Quite a number of Japanese startups have come out with humanoid robots in the past few years and most are still trying to figure out how to make money with them. MechaTrax is betting on the arcade business.