Yujin's patrol robot, called iRobi, is about 2 feet high, with a face designed to appear friendly to children. When the robot is first acquired, the user leads it around the house via a remote control to teach it the layout of the premises. Thereafter it can be told to go to a room and take a picture and send it to the owner at a remote location, Park explained. He estimated the U.S. price of the robot will be about $3,000 when it is marketed late this year.
Meccano, the French firm that makes Erector sets, was in the pavilion showing Spyke, a robot Erector project that Michael Ingberg, Meccano managing director, said could be assembled in a couple of hours, in a variety of configurations. It, too, can be controlled through the Internet via a Wi-Fi link, taking pictures and interacting with a microphone and loudspeaker. The prototype shown at CES had hands that were purely cosmetic, but Ingberg said that Meccano plans to eventually offer a toy missile launcher as an accessory. The basic unit is expected to cost $269 and be available by Christmas.
Other booths at the pavilion were staffed by various Japanese government agencies, such as Robot Technology Osaka, displaying various Japanese robot products. Some were hobbyist kits, but there was also Paro, a "therapeutic robot" that looks like a baby harp seal, except that it has fur, making it cuddly, and it is programmed to be friendly. The cost is about $3,500 but is so far sold only in Japan, explained Kevin Kalb, coordinator for the Japanese External Trade Organization office in Chicago, who was also at the pavilion.
Paro won an award last year from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and METI plans to turn its robot awards program into an annual event, Kalb explained. METI has also decided to make robots a major focus, to counter the effects of a declining labor population in Japan, caused by a declining birth rate and aging population, Kalb noted.
Indeed, Kalb provided literature from METI laying out an official plan to assimilate robots into Japanese society, through 2025. In the next few years, the plan includes support for the creation of a robot service market, humanoid robot development efforts, common infrastructure development projects and basic development for "strategic advanced robots." The "spreading stage" should begin about 2010, and the "full-fledged spreading stage" in 2015. By that time the Japanese robot market should amount to 3.1 trillion yen ($26 billion), and general-purpose self-directed robots should be in circulation.