IREX 2013

At IREX 2011, NSK showed a prototype guide robot for the visually-impaired. This week, just two years later, NSK showed a new prototype with a 75 percent weight reduction and an 83 percent footprint reduction.

Toyota's booth at the International Robot Exhibition 2013 showcased its ongoing commitment to developing robots that can improve daily life. The Human Support Robot, designed to assist the physically disabled were on hand, along with a new compliant robot arm that is safe for people.

The tracked UNiMO EV drive-train promises new levels of mobility for wheelchair users. Two models of the Unimo wheelchair will be available by the end of this month – the US$18,000 Unimo Grace and the US$10,000 Unimo Adventure, both capable of going places you cannot normally go in a wheelchair.

Wouldn't it be great if we had robotic garbage cans that could move around on their own and pick up litter? Well, engineers from Japan's Toyohashi University of Technology are part-way there. Their bots, however, ask people to pick up the trash for them.

For the geek-at-heart, there's likely no more loved artist than Yasuhito Udagawa (AKA Shovelhead). Here's a look at his latest creations from the floor of the 2013 International Robotics Expo.

Full-bodied humanoid robots are undeniably fascinating, but why pay for the lower part of the body if you don't need it? For that matter, why pay for the arms if you don't need them, either? That's the thinking behind the SociBot and SociBot-Mini interactive robots.

There's a popular educational exercise in which teens are required to take care of a bag of flour for several days, as if it's a baby. As any parent will tell you, however, there's a lot more to baby-raising than just safely carrying them around. That's why products like the RealCare Baby were creat

Kubota has built a robust brand for its agricultural machinery and hence it was no surprise to see the company showing an unpowered exoskeleton at IREX this week. The ARM-1 is expected to sell for around US$1,100-1,200 as a productivity aid for fruit picking and similar activities.

The Hirobo stand at the International Robotics Exhibition in Tokyo this week was full of surprises. The first was the HX-1 autonomous electric helicopter, but when you opened the brochure, there were details of the company's planned personal (manned) BIT electric micro helicopter.

Japan's Asahi brewery is developing a robotic draft beer pouring machine for high-volume bars. Connecting to the keg, the machine pours up to six perfect beers at a time, taking around 12 seconds per glass, but more importantly, doing so without specialized labor and with zero wastage.

Best known for its advanced exoskeletons, Cyberdyne is readying a new cleaning robot for industrial facilities. The new model can be driven around its designated cleaning areas and remembers them, or it can explore and build its own internal map.

Understaffed and overworked nurses and pharmacists in Japan will soon have a helpful friend in Panasonic's HOSPI-R, which went on sale this month. It's an autonomous delivery robot that transports drugs throughout a hospital, giving medical personnel more time to tend to patients' needs.