"ROBOT CONTESTS
One of Japan's most famous robots, and one that has had a great
influence on many young boys, is Astro Boy, who made his debut in
a youth magazine in 1952. Boys who were 10 when he first appeared
are now preparing for retirement.
Since then, Astro Boy has been replaced by robot contests in the
hearts of young people. In the 1990s, robot contests abounded in
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) broadcasts, and there are currently
more than 20 robot tournaments held each year. Including regional
preliminary contests, a robot contest of some kind is held every
month somewhere in the country. The contests are organized around
many different activities, such as sumo wrestling, soccer and races.
The robot sumo tournament seems to be the most popular, with as
many as 4,000 machines participating. "We're past the boom
stage," says Sakigawara Masahiro, the editor in chief of Robocon
Magazine, Japan's only magazine dedicated to robot contests. "I
think it's safe to say that robot contests are now an established
part of society. Making a robot involves more than just the mechanism.
It's a very deep field that requires comprehensive technical expertise
in such areas as computer control. By having teams work cooperatively
toward a common goal, robot contests also have great educational
value."
According to his story line, Astro Boy was born on 7 April 2003.
While it's highly unlikely that we will have any real-life robot
that is both gentle and strong and can fly through the sky by that
date, it's virtually certain that, at least in Japan, we will be
seeing more and more robots operating in people's day-to-day lives.
"Our manufacturing skills and technologies are closely connected
to our national culture," observes Suzuki of the National Science
Museum. "I have no doubt that the field of robot-assisted medical
treatment and nursing care will continue to develop as a Japanese
specialty in years to come."
Meanwhile, Professor Takanishi at Waseda University warns that measures
must be taken quickly to revise legal codes governing robots. For
example, suppose someone with malicious intent uses a robot to inflict
harm on another. Should the victim seek redress from the person
who operated the robot, or from the company that manufactured the
robot in such a way that it could be used to cause harm? Takanishi
is worried that Japan lags far behind other advanced industrialized
countries when it comes to such legal questions.
A group of Japanese researchers has proposed something called the
RoboCup project (www.robocup.com),
which has set an ambitious goal: to field a team of biped robots
by the year 2050 that can beat a human team in the World Cup soccer
tournament. "It might be achievable," says Doi, the "father"
of Sony's Aibo. "But it'll be impossible to catch up with humans
in terms of emotional and intellectual understanding." Even
if robots can be programmed to imitate human facial expressions
or to move like animals, it is still only imitation. "Aibo
lacks the intelligence that even an ant carries latently on a genetic
level," he says.
Robotics is a deep field that impinges on many others, including
advances in computer processing, the explication of life, the true
nature of the human heart and emotions, and the morality of human
society. Viewed in this context, even Japan, which is in the forefront
of the robotics field, can be considered to have just crossed the
threshold into unknown territory.YOSHIDA
Noriyuki is a staff writer in the Science News Department of the
Yomiuri shimbun."
