Robot Exhibition In Tokyo

Japan is hosting the International Robot Exhibition 2009 in Tokyo. With hopes to build a $10 billion industry by 2016, robots that may be dancing today could be working tomorrow.

Showing the changing face of robotics, those such as Omni Zero 1000 can transform into a car while also carrying a passenger on a seat hidden under its head.

Transformer robots aren't the only ones in the limelight though, as Toyota Industries is showing a robotic arm that can be controlled with no more than a flick of the wrist.


Using a combination of sensors and high-speed cameras, the system can determine the location of a user's hand and the gesture they are making, translating that directly into robotic motion.

According to Toyota Industries' Kazuo Seiki, the system has many advantages.

"The biggest merit of this is being able to control objects without having to hold anything. When in the field or when working where your hands have to be high up, you can't use a mouse, and so we hope to use it in those sorts of contexts."

Japan has the highest robot to person ratio in the world and the robot exhibit itself has been held since 1973, with nearly 200 companies participating this year.