(Reuters) — Toyota Motors will begin selling the KIROBO mini robot in Japan next year, potentially appealing to an ageing, shrinking population where human interactions for some have decreased.
Although project manager and engineer Fuminori Kataoka says KIROBO mini isn’t targeting a specific demographic, its sale comes at a time when official data showed that Japan has 34.6 million people aged 65 and older, or 27.3 percent of the population – the highest proportion among advanced nations.
In Japan, companion robots have been quite popular. In 1999, Sony subsidiary VAIO Corp produced a companion dog robot called AIBO – 3,000 robots were sold within 20 minutes in the country. Another 2,000 sold within four days in the U.S., according to the Sony Aibo tribute website.
Kataoka said the purpose of KIROBO mini to the AIBO robot. KIROBO minis were also created at a VAIO factory, where AIBO was produced, Kataoka said, adding:
“I think working together with people who have in the past worked on AIBO (Sony’s now-defunct companion dog robot) means we’re moving in the same trajectory. When I talked to VAIO (Sony’s former subsidiary, now an independent company under Japan Industrial Partners), they were very keen on doing this project with us.”
“Some people see their cars as their partners, others only see it as a mode of transportation. I prefer to create the former, so I think I have the same attitude towards this (Kirobo Mini),” he said.
The 10 centimeter (3.94 in) and 183 gram (0.002 lb) robot can have basic conversations for about 2.5 hours, after being charged for about three hours.
During a demonstration to the media, KIROBO mini responded to questions such as “Can you sing?” and “When is your birthday?”, although at times it failed to give coherent answers.
KIROBO mini will also detect a person’s presence, turning its head towards the person and use facial recognition to start conversations.
The conversations, along with where KIROBO mini is taken to, are recorded as data at multiple Toyota centre servers.
The robot will go on pre-sale this winter, for 39,800 yen ($392), with a monthly fee of 300 yen ($3) for dedicated applications at Toyota vehicle dealers in Tokyo and Aichi prefecture.
