November 4, 2024
OSAKA – If you’re unable to visit the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo you might be able to see it through the eyes of remote-controlled human-sized robots.
A team of researchers, mainly from the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), plans to introduce the technology so people outside the venue can join visitors and tour one of the pavilions.
Called “avatars” by the Kyoto Prefecture-based ATR team, the robots will be used during the expo’s six-month period in the “Future of Life” pavilion. Osaka University’s Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro, who is one of Japan’s foremost researchers of androids, produced the pavilion.
About 40 robots, including androids, will be prepared for use in the pavilion, with several of them able to be controlled by outside participants as avatars.
The team developed an exclusive system for outside visitors to control the avatars with computers via the internet.
Online visitors will use their computer’s mouse to move the avatars where they want. They can look around the pavilion via a camera set at the chest or other part of the robot.
To date, robot avatars have been used for people who cannot go outside due to a serious disability or disease. They can attend school classes, try out serving customers at cafes and participate in social activities using their avatar.
The team of researchers regards the expo attempt as an experiment for a future society in which humans and robots will safely coexist in the same environment.
They have succeeded in improving wireless technology for the robot avatars to receive commands and have been able to make about 100 robots move in different ways at the same time.
The team said it will be the first time that robot avatars will be operated at the venue in the history of expo events.
Shogo Nishimura, senior researcher of the ATR team and expert of human robot interaction, said: “By using the robot avatars, people who cannot go to the venue will also be able to enjoy the event. We want to show a barrier-free future at the expo.”