The Robovie-R Ver.3, an advanced service humanoid jointly made by major Japanese robot maker Vstone and Japan’s Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), has a lot going for it. The 120cm robot can understand and answer questions, he can serve as a guide for humans (he “walks” at about 2.5km/h), he’s cute, and he’s touch sensitive (through a total of eleven touch sensors).
Robovie-R Ver.3 is specifically designed to help elderly and disabled people handling various tasks. And now Vstone and the ATR have decided to put him to demo his abilities and actually put the robot to practical use this November, in a shopping center in the Japanese city of Nara.
The idea is to let the humanoid guide elderly people through the center by walking along with them. Robovie-R Ver.3 is capable of identifying and giving information on stores and even products autonomously. He’ll also be carrying items for its master, moving up and down slopes and avoiding obstacles in the way.
ATR and Vstone say one of the main purposes of their $41,000 robot is to help bring those elderly and disabled people back into society who chose to shut themselves off for whatever reason.
Here’s a new video showing how Robovie-R Ver. 3 takes a human by the hand and starts a monologue (in Japanese):
Via Plastic Pals via Robomedia [JP]
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