Well over 100 robots have showed at the 2005 World Expo. Their carrying out tasks ranging from cleaning things to greeting and entertaining visitors. Toyota's robotic band, that consists of seven trumpet and horn players and a lead singer have been performing many different tunes for thousands of visitors, selling out 13 shows per day. Back at the Expo, Kokoro, Expo's humanoid receptionist, is busy greeting thousand's of guests. Kokoro can speak in four different languages and can carry on short conversations. However, Kokoro can be put into situations where she says, "I'm sorry, I was dreaming of Kyoshi," ,while raising her hand to her mouth distractedly, in response to a question she can't understand. Japan is the world's most robot friendly country, employing over 800,000 industrial robots. However, in the near future robots are expected to being doing more than just carrying out tasks in big industrial plants.
English: A scene from R.U.R., showing three robots...
Actroid-DER, developed by KOKORO Inc for customer ...
PaPeRo: Personal Robot"Until now, robots were used at factories, in assembly lines to make cars or semiconductors," said Yamamoto. "In the future, they will be used in homes, offices, hospitals and amusement parks.", says Tetsuya Yamamoto of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. One of the most popular robots in today's world is PaPeRo, a childcare robot. Although it looks more like a toy or a character from a children's story, PaPeRo can recognize faces and voices and even respond to changing facial expressions or physical contact.
It can take a roll call, quiz kids on their homework, play games and even report misbehavior to parents via a built-in mobile phone and Internet connection.
"Parents outside home or elementary school can call to PaPeRo," explained Dr. Fujita of NEC, which developed the robot. "Then they can watch how their children are doing through the eyes of PaPeRo.",