For as long as anyone can remember, the Tokyo International Robot Exhibition has been a showcase for Japan at its wackiest: stern industrial machines lurked backstage as waltzing, noodle-making or ping-pong playing humanoids stole the limelight.
In recessionary 2009, however, with Japanese industry writhing in pain, the national robot obsession has turned deadly serious. For the first time, the show explains exactly how the machines are going to take over.
A new mood is in the air: the downturn, says a Tsukuba University engineer, has honed Japanese robotics research and forced it to be more practical. Companies and universities once given unlimited budgets to push the boundaries of robotics are being told to come up quickly with something usable and commercial.Read more
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