5 Japanese robot innovations ready to settle in the U.S.

Doesn’t everyone love robots? It turns out International CES loved robots this week too.

At the show, 5 Japanese companies showcased their innovations and are ready for partnerships in the U.S., which means we can be seeing more of these five robotic technologies in other countries very soon.
 
Check out these five advances in robotics that demonstrate what robots can do.

1. Wall Bot climbs up your refrigerator

Here’s a robot geared more toward children (similar to that of a remote-controlled car). I bet your remote-controlled car can’t climb up the side of your refrigerator, though.
 
Wall Bot isn’t limited to the refrigerator; any magnetic surface will do. The robot can be controlled with an Android device, a Nintendo Wii controller, or any Bluetooth-enabled remote control. It comes equipped with a smart power-strip that accommodates large AC adapters and cables that can connect it to the Internet via Ethernet or WiFi so you can control it with your phone or computer.

2. RAPIRO: Cuddly humanoid robot for the techy with a soft side

RAPIRO wants to deliver your breakfast in bed.

If you want a cute personal humanoid robot, RAPIRO is the way to go. You assemble the robot yourself and voila — you have a tiny robot that can walk, grip objects in its hands, and turn its head and waist. RAPIRO comes with 12 servos, an Arduino-compatible servo control board and is designed to work with a Raspberry Pi single-board computer.

3. PARO robot assists those with illness

Yes, these are actually robots.

The ninth generation of the PARO robot was introduced at CES. It looks like a baby harp seal and works to alleviate the effects of Alzheimer’s, dementia, or emotional complications that come along with recovering from a severe illness. The robot works by stimulating interaction between patients and caregivers to reduce the stress on each party.

4. Crawler Robot explores disaster areas

This small robot was designed to explore narrow spaces and disaster areas. The unmanned vehicle is ultra-lightweight and was constructed to offer mobility. It also has high-traction rollers so it can climb steps of up to 1.3 times its crawler radius.

5. Robot-to-robot communications (so robots won’t need us anymore)

The technology displayed by Azapa Company Ltd. didn’t point out a particular robot, but instead a P2P local network innovation that can be applied to communication among robots. The tech can connect robots instantaneously and even allows users to communicate with each other during emergencies when cellphone service is nonexistent.