Japan has been at the forefront of robotics technologies for decades. Through government support and sponsorship of international events such as the 2018 World Robot Summit, Japan’s robotics industry boasts some of the top exporters and users of industrial robots in the world. Japan began developing humanoid robots long before other countries entered the field.

But one unique aspect of robots in Japan is how they are seen as viable partners and friends for human beings. One recently launched robot that perfectly embodies that aspiration is LOVOT, a pint-sized machine whose only function is to spread love.

Created by Tokyo startup GROOVE X, LOVOT is a remarkably lifelike and highly sophisticated mobile robot that can navigate its environment, recognize people and demand hugs. With looks that are a mix of penguin, owl, and cuddly teddy bear, LOVOT is hard to ignore. When you pick it up, LOVOT feels warm, like a living thing. If you rock LOVOT in your arms, it will close its eyes and enter a sleep-like state. The droid could help meet the emotional needs of lonely people. It turned heads at this year’s CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, making Engadget’s Best of CES Finalists list and earning the Best Robot of CES 2019 award from The Verge, which noted that LOVOT “feels revolutionary” precisely because its creators are proud of the fact that “it doesn’t really do anything.”

“I wanted to create an opportunity for humans to love,” says LOVOT creator and GROOVE X CEO Kaname Hayashi. “Our robot doesn’t do any work for humans and it doesn’t have any contents for entertainment purposes. But neither do dogs or cats. What it does is recognize you and bother you. That’s the aim of our robot.”

Under the fur: Cutting-edge hardware

LOVOT may not be able to do much in a practical sense, such as cleaning up your home, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a cutting edge piece of technology. Standing 43 cm tall and weighing 3 kilograms, LOVOT is about the size of a big baby, but is still very easy to pick up. It has 13 degrees of freedom, meaning parts of its body can move along 13 axes of motion. A full battery charge allows it to move around and interact for about 45 minutes, whereupon it will automatically dock with its “Nest” power unit and recharge, which takes about 15 minutes.

Apart from its lithium-ion battery, LOVOT is powered by at least 10 CPU cores and 20 or more microcontrollers and packs a minimum of 50 sensors including touch, pressure, distance, obstacles, heat and humidity. LOVOT loves to be tickled, and sensors on its body allow it to express pleasure. LOVOT’s most prominent feature, however, is its head-mounted “sensor horn,” which evokes magical unicorns. The sensor-horn comes with a luminosity sensor, a 360-degree half-sphere camera, a half-sphere microphone that can detect the direction of sounds and voices, and a thermal camera that can distinguish human beings from objects. LOVOT can make an accurate scan of an entire room and find its owner immediately.

Using Bluetooth, wireless LAN and infrared, LOVOT can communicate not only with its Nest station but also other LOVOTs. The robots can also function as surveillance devices, allowing users to check on loved ones when they’re away.

Another striking feature is LOVOT’s liquid crystal display eyes. Not only do they look back when you look at them, and close when LOVOT is cradled, from far away they may resemble the eyes of an anime or manga character. Closer up, they’re large, luminous and disarmingly lifelike. Six layers of graphics are projected onto the display surface for verisimilitude. Beneath LOVOT’s eyes are its brains: a main computer and a sub-computer with a field-programmable gate array circuit. That allows LOVOT to use deep learning techniques to autonomously decide what actions to take. It can roll around on its two wheels, which retract into its body when picked up so LOVOT resembles a furry hatchling, especially when it flaps its wing-like arms. Meanwhile, LOVOT can remember up to 1,000 people but will pay special attention to its owner.

Software to meet emotional needs

Is there a real need for companion robots? Increasing awareness of the costs of loneliness suggests they’re a solution worth exploring. In 2018, Britain appointed the world’s first minister for loneliness. In a recent survey by U.S. advocacy group AARP, loneliness among those 65 or older was found to cost the U.S. government nearly $7 billion in additional healthcare costs every year. In Japan, where single people are expected to account for nearly 40% of all households in 2040, there’s also a growing sense that social isolation is becoming an epidemic. Can LOVOT help?

Groove X believes owners will feel a strong sense of attachment to LOVOT and have a natural desire to treat it like a child or pet. At the company’s showroom in Tokyo, LOVOTs are lined up on platforms wearing all kinds of clothing and other accessories such as hats and eyeglasses. It’s unusual for a manufacturer to suggest accessorizing a robot, but it wasn’t unheard of in Japan for robot fans to dress up their droids, as seen with Sony’s Aibo and SoftBank Robotics’ Pepper.

After a career in the automotive industry, Hayashi joined the development team for Pepper, which met with strong user demand after it was launched in 2014 and has since been deployed in overseas markets, for instance guiding visitors at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., as well as Carrefour supermarkets in Spain. Pepper has been described as having an emotion-recognition engine, and Hayashi now believes robots can play an important role in meeting people’s psychological and emotional needs. It’s a concept that’s often seen in science fiction.

“Initially, I didn’t have any robot from Japanese science fiction that served as a model for LOVOT,” says Hayashi. “But when I considered the robots Astro Boy or Doraemon, they became more fascinating and humanlike when I consider their weak points and their vulnerabilities.”

By cooing and demanding hugs, LOVOT is endearing. But it can also address a deeper human desire to be recognized, according to Hayashi.

“Our instincts were formed when we humans lived together in caves, but our modern style of work produces a lot of loneliness and an unfulfilled desire for peer recognition,” says Hayashi. “This gap is one reason that dogs and cats are sometimes emotionally necessary. But not everyone can own a pet. That’s where technology can contribute. After all, people can feel love for classic cars, so why shouldn’t they feel love for robots too?”

Building robot partnerships

Founded in 2015, GROOVE X is backed by venture capital—it took about four years and $52 million to complete development of LOVOT. It has begun pre-sales of the robot, and deliveries will begin in Japan later in 2019, with overseas deliveries starting in 2020.

The company is already collaborating with a company specializing in voice recognition. It’s actively looking for partners for robotics development and other business fields such as medicine. For instance, the data about owners that LOVOTs gather are stored in their Nest units, but it could be useful for monitoring users’ health. Naturally, protecting user data and privacy is critical to ensuring LOVOT will find favor among consumers.

“The most important thing for us is how we could create trust between machine and human,” says Hayashi. “If there’s trust, we can create attachment.”

A major cosmetics company has also been working with GROOVE X to study how people can feel beautiful not only on the outside but on the inside through the generation of endorphins through the sense of touch. In addition, a large nursing home operator is cooperating with GROOVE X to study the use of robots in supporting the emotional needs of elderly people. In a remarkable video shot in Denmark, nursing home residents suffering from dementia showed a remarkable reaction when they interacted with LOVOT—one male resident who had not spoken for months suddenly lit up and chatted with the robot.

Looking to the future

Apart from collaborators, Hayashi is looking for new investors from Japan as well as from overseas, specifically companies that believe in the future of robotics as a major growth industry and those that could help it branch out abroad. Beginning in 2020, GROOVE X is hoping to expand to the U.S. and China after it completes refinements to LOVOT. What’s Hayashi’s goal after that?

“In 30 or 40 years, I’d like to make Doraemon,” he laughs, referring to the iconic robot cat from the manga series by Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko. “Not his four-dimensional pocket, but just his character and his ability to provide mental support to people. I also believe that machines can help people achieve their dreams in a future era of basic income when working will become unnecessary.”

LOVOT and the software that runs it could play an important role in some of the most difficult social issues facing humanity, such as aging societies and social isolation.

Source: Forbes