Unique human-size robot functions as a caretaker or house sitter

Electronics Technology

7 May 2003 Electronics Technology

'wakamaru,' the first human-size robot that can function as a caretaker or house sitter made its debut at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco in April. 'wakamaru' was developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and runs on embedded Linux from MontaVista Software.

'wakamaru' features continuous access to the Internet and comes equipped with voice and face recognition capabilities that allow the robot to search for and follow voices, faces and movements. It has the ability to comprehend and interact with humans (such as discussing the daily news it obtains via the Internet) based on a built-in dictionary and voice recognition, and can be programmed to call, or e-mail a designated person, a hospital, or security firm if it notices a problem.

When connecting remotely to 'wakamaru' via its built-in camera-equipped mobile phone, users can see images of the house the robot serves and even communicate with family members at home.

One metre tall and weighing in at 27,2 kg, the battery-operated robot moves about on wheels and recharges itself when its batteries run low.

The robot, which promises to be an ideal help for elderly people, the disabled or others living independently, will be available in the Japanese market first, beginning in 2004, for about 1 million yen (around R62 000).

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Unique human-size robot functions as a caretaker or house sitter

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