NEXTAGE aims to be a robot with "just the right touch"

 By now most of you have seen some photos/videos of Kawada Industries' new robot NEXTAGE. So I'm not going to explain the details of this upper body robot that is meant to work besides humans in factories, restaurants, etc. But I wanted to share with you what Takakatsu Isozumi, head of the robotics division at Kawada, told me this past summer when I had the chance to meet him in Japan. Isozumi-san is also the CEO of General Robotix, a Kawada subsidiary. He is seen in the far back in this video of three NEXTAGE robots doing a demo at iREX last week.

 Kawada is well-known for making the HRP series - including the female HRP-4C. Kawada developed the hardware and AIST develops the software. So Kawada has a long experience in developing bipedal humanoids.

 Isozumi-san said that they have now entered the "4th stage" in robotics R&D. In this new phase, Kawada will be focusing on the hands and arms. And in doing so, they think that the key is to apply what they've learned through their research in bipedal walking.

 For the robots to be able to walk on uneven surfaces, Kawada needed to come up with a combination of sensors and mechanical parts that would enable them to adjust accordingly. In a similar way, the upper body robots need "just the right touch of ingredients that will allow them to be flexible, and moreover safe."  And of course, safety is utterly important for these robots that will be working right besides you. To use another word, Kawada wants its robots to be "temperate."

 Customers that bought the HRP series were researchers so they knew how to work them. But NEXTAGE will be for people that don't necessarily know about robots. They just want to use them. Same goes for Kawada's other upper body robot HIRO which is for the research community but for researchers that want to come up with applications and for conducting human-robot-interaction studies.

 Isozumi-san sent me a cool photo of the new HIRO without the shirt. Apparently some customers didn't care for the jersey.....