Robot avatars set for World Expo in Osaka

People who are unable to travel to the World Expo in Osaka next year may still be able to experience the global event — through the eyes of remote-controlled, human-sized robots.

The World Expo 2025 is organized and sanctioned by the Bureau International des Expositions, an intergovernmental organization overseeing and regulating the international expositions. Next year's expo will run from April to October.

This will be the third time Osaka hosts a global expo, having previously held one in 1970 and another in 1990.

A team of researchers, mainly from the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, or ATR, plans to introduce the latest technology so people outside the Japanese venue can join visitors and tour one of the pavilions at the site.

Called "avatars" by the Kyoto Prefecture-based ATR team, the robots will be used during the expo in the "Future of Life" pavilion. Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, who is one of Japan's foremost researchers of androids, is behind the development of the pavilion.

About 40 robots, including androids, will be prepared for use in the pavilion, with several of them able to be controlled by outside participants as avatars.

The team developed an exclusive system for outside visitors to control the avatars with computers via the internet.

Online visitors will be able to use their computer to move the avatars where they want. They can look around the pavilion via a camera set at the chest or other part of the robot.

To date, robot avatars have been used for people who cannot go outside of their homes and are limited in their mobility due to medical conditions. They can attend school classes, try out serving customers at cafes and participate in social activities using their avatar.

The team of researchers regards the expo attempt as an experiment for a future society in which humans and robots will safely coexist in the same environment.

They have succeeded in improving wireless technology for the robot avatars to receive commands and have been able to make about 100 robots move in different ways at the same time.

The team said it will be the first time that robot avatars will be operated at the venue in the history of expo events.

Shogo Nishimura, a senior researcher of the ATR team and specialist in human robot interaction, said: "By using the robot avatars, people who cannot go to the venue will also be able to enjoy the event. We want to show a barrier-free future at the expo."

THE JAPAN NEWS, JAPAN