Robotics

Autonomous delivery robots are expected to be tested on public roads before this fiscal year ends in March, it has been learned.

Mix the rise of e-commerce in Japan with a chronic labor shortage and a graying society and what do you get? An autonomous home delivery robot with a cartoon character voice and big inquisitive eyes.

An international drone race will be held in November as one of events at the Tokyo Motor Show, which will start in late October, the organizing committee said Monday.

Millions of years after the ancestors of humans evolved to lose their tails, researchers at Keio University have built a robotic one they say could help unsteady elderly people keep their balance.

Dubbed Arque, the gray 1-meter device mimics tails that cheetahs and other animals use to keep their balance while running and climbing, the Keio team says.

When athletes and organizers descend on Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games they’ll be ferried around in autonomous cars, while torch relay runners will be accompanied by vehicles equipped with artificial intelligence. Robots will ferry javelins and hammers.

Scientists at EPFL, in collaboration with researchers at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan, have developed a tiny pump that could play a big role in the development of autonomous soft robots, lightweight exoskeletons and smart clothing. Flexible, silent and weighing only one gram, it is poised to replace the rigid, noisy and bulky pumps currently used. The scientists’ work has just been published in Nature.

Cyborg technology to restore bodily functions that have declined due to aging, technology to eliminate industrial waste from the Earth's environment, and artificial hibernation are among 25 areas the Japanese government aims to support, Nikkei has learned.

Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will set up a venture fund of around ¥20 billion ($185 million) with a Daiwa Securities Group Inc. unit to invest in prospective startups.

Yamato Transport and Rakuten are among a group of companies set to partner with the Japanese government to test unmanned delivery robots on public roads.

In an unusual combination of disciplines, a basketball-shooting robot created by Japan’s leading automaker helped students at a Tokyo elementary school on Friday to learn math.