The Great Robot Exhibition

7 Dec 2007 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Japan, Technology

The Great Robot Exhibition

Omg! This clever little fella can walk up stairs! But the "morph3" by Chiba Institute of Technology lacked the glamour of some of his fellow bots at The Great Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. And he might be good at stairs, but the poor chap can't even stand on his own when turned off. Photo courtesy of National Museum of Nature and Science.

Not our title - it’s the bold name of the current exhibition at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo: Drooling geeks are flocking right now to The Great Robot Exhibition: karakuri, anime and the latest robots to admire all sorts of automata, androids, anime, toys and other robot lookalikes that emerged over the last couple of decades (or centuries in the case of Japan’s karakuri). PingMag walks you through the exhibition:

Written by Verena

Karakuri

Karakuri pt. I: See what we have here! This little - and quite famous - mechanised calligraphy writing puppet or “mojikaki ningyo” is just 56 cm high. Under the table is a small automaton that keeps it going.

Where does it stem from, this Japanese fondness for robots? Influences from China date back to 2600 BC with the so-called South Pointing Chariot, according to karakuri.info. Japanese automata, or karakuri, peaked in popularity during the Edo Period. But this tradition continues today: According to the Unix company in Osaka that still produces karakuri, their tea-serving mechanised puppets are made the traditional way and move simply by springs, mercury and sand, good old clockwork style. Assembling is easy, no need for metallic screws or nails. Impressive - and lots of handcrafting involved.


A “bunraku ningyo” or “ningyo joruri,” meaning ‘puppet drama:’ this one is an ancient kabuki theatre model and stands 95cm tall…

…and its modern version would be this: The PBDR (Partner Ballroom Dance Robot) - not quite a puppet, but someone to dance with.

The modern version of a dancing puppet would be the PBDR, which stands for “Partner Ballroom Dance Robot.” That’s not such an elegant name for this dancing lady created by Tohoku University, Nomura Unison and Torowazo in 2005. Its torque sensors prevent it/her from stepping on its/her partner’s feet.

Mother’s Little Helper


By now we all know this little dog: Sony’s AIBO (for AI and Eye), introduced in 1999…

… and a slightly younger household servant: Toshiba’s ApriAlpha, from 2003.

Bots in the house - why not? If I only had enough tasks for it… Take this cute little ApriAlpha by Toshiba. The WiFi-enabled bot can recognise your voice and read e-mails aloud to you. If you get bored you can command him to wheel around the living room! However, there would be one with far more magic: The advanced Nabaztag with his sweet rotating ears.

Sometimes kawaii can get way out of hand - even by Japanese standards: The Paro, a therapeutic robotic seal.

And here’s Paro: pitched as a “Mental Commit Robot for Psychological Enrichment,” and once you’ve held this plush little seal yourself, you’ll never forget the weird feeling. First introduced in 1993, it was developed to soothe the elderly and calm kids. Its sensors let it react to you, so petting it will induce blinking eyes and waving flippers. And the sounds! Just like a real seal, but this one only yaps when you want it to. The most moving incident was when, at the exhibition, poor Paro’s battery ran low and a staff member held it like a baby and placed it in its cage to feed it with a baby-soother. What a sight!

Animatronics

At first sight, this chap has an uncanny ability to mimic human face expressions. But actually, this 3DCG + Animatronix was developed by the Kyushu University to study the make-up of kabuki players as shown in the pic. It’s supposedly pretty difficult to learn or redo a player’s special make-up just by drawing it or taking a picture that leaves out the three-dimensional view. So, to preserve this tradition, animatronics are used.

Musical Refinement


I wonder how Waseda University’s Wabot-2 from 1984 compares to Thelonious Monk. EIther way, it’s impressive, and from 1984! George Orwell’s year…

… meanwhile, elsewhere, the FMT-I piano robot seems to be doing just fine on its own. Three computers and plenty of wiring keep the music flowing.

Assembly Line Accuracy

Like birds picking at food! A pair of Fanuc M-430iA neatly shovelling items from A to B. It’s supposed to have “a wide array of intelligent capabilities” for food and pharmaceutical handling. Pill-packing bots!

Toys!!

Gun damn! A bot just flew over my head!

The Super #1 Robot toy collection informed us that weapon factories were turned into toy factories after World War II - enabling the rise of toy ranges such as Mazinger Z and Gundam. To plunge deeper, have a brief overlook of the Japanese robot character history here.

Gold-plated toys for smokers? Sacrilege! These are the Gold Lightan. Who could deny their beauty?

More gold - this time from Gundam! The MG-37’s name is Hyakushiki and he is one fine Gunpla, for a plastic mecha model.

A view into Astro Boy’s finely tuned electrical body…

One star certainly wasn’t missing from the exhibition: In the 50s, an atomic star rose literally to the skies - Tetsuwan Atomu or Astro Boy. Guess what? This sweet but dangerous little fella was accepted into the Robot Hall of Famea couple of years ago. And, if we’re lucky, the long overdue feature-length animation/live action movie under his name could be out in 2009, finally.

Well, there were plenty more handsome artificial guys around, but we’ll spare you the not-so-overwhelming ASIMO presentation for today. So, hurry up and head for Ueno to see the exhibition, it’s a must-see! Info below.

Now we know why we really need robots: to do press-ups with one hand instead of us! This one is made by Kondo. Video courtesy of Vicente Montelongo.

The Great Robot Exhibition
At the National Museum Of Nature and Science, Ueno, Tokyo. Map.
Date: Running until January 27th, 2008.
Schedule: Open Tue to Sun from 9am to 5pm, Fri until 8pm.
Entry Fee: ¥1,200/¥1,400.

81 Comments

  1. WOW! Makes me wish I was in Tokyo! Personally, I think the PBDR is a little creepy… thanks for the wicked post (as usual)! PingMag ROCKS!

    Posted by: Adrian J.K. Shum on December 7th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

  2. [...] The Great Robot Exhibition Drooling geeks are flocking right now to The Great Robot Exhibition: karakuri, anime and the latest robots to admire all sorts of automata, androids, anime, toys and other robot lookalikes that emerged over the last couple of decades (or centuries in the case of Japan’s karakuri). [...]

    Posted by: Nerdcore » Links vom 7. 12. 07: Electrosonic Festival, Polaroid, Futurescanner und Pirate Bay 2.0 on December 8th, 2007 at 12:44 am

  3. dear ping mag,
    you guys really really awesome
    I’m in love with Paro and the idea of it as a tool for therapeutic purposes.
    ♥

    Posted by: Z on December 8th, 2007 at 9:08 am

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  5. Now those are bad ass!

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  6. I’ll just take this chance to say that I have yet to find a robot that has laughed at one of my jokes.

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  7. wonder if a robot can ever sing opera?
    love ping.

    Posted by: minako on December 10th, 2007 at 8:15 am

  8. I loved de baby seal robot!

    Posted by: Lu on December 12th, 2007 at 12:02 am

  9. [...] ->The Great Robot Exhibition: karakuri, anime and the latest robots on pingmag ->toy comics exhibition (art exhibition about toys and games in comics) (via we-make-money-not-art) (article) [...]

    Posted by: randform » Blog Archive » wort zum sonntag the toy u nion on December 13th, 2007 at 5:22 am

  10. I ♥ PingMag!

    Posted by: A on December 13th, 2007 at 10:47 am

  11. The coolest!
    I want the mojikaki ningyou!

    Posted by: Akai on December 15th, 2007 at 8:30 am

  12. [...] is a short video (via PingMag) that shows how fast the robot arms can [...]

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  14. [...] the meantime, there’s a nice review posted on pingmag.jp - that even mentions my karakuri.info website (thanks [...]

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