IRT Foundation to Support Man and Aged Society


NEW !	070208	1st International Symposium on Information and Robot Technology (ISIRT) We are pleased to announce that the Center of IRT will hold the 1st International Symposium: Date : March 12th (Mon), 2007. 10:00～ Venue : Yayoi Auditorium Ichijo Hall, The University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus) Registration Information * Symposium : first 200 applicants (Free) * Banquet : first 100 applicants (Participants must cover banquet fee at their own expenses) * Registration due : March 7 (Wed), 2007

トップ

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) has selected a proposal from The University of Tokyo called "IRT Foundation to Support Man and Aging Society" for the Creation of Innovation Centers for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research Areas. This program is designed to encourage equal collaboration between industry and academia to promote research and development in advanced technologies by establishing new industries over the next ten to fifteen years. This will stimulate innovation and educate researchers and engineers of the next generation. The objective of this project is to fuse information and robot technologies (IRT) to support humanity and society. In addition, a new industry after automobiles and computers will help achieve sustainable prosperity in Japan, which suffers from a low birthrate and an aging society.

IRT is a fusion of information technology (IT) and robot technology (RT) and is one of the advanced multi-disciplinary research areas. Dr. Ikoma coined this word, which has appeared in academic journals on robotics and the web page of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

IRT combines IT, which works in the cyber world (such as high-speed computing, information networks and software) with RT, which works in the real world. Therefore, human-shaped robots or humanoids will not be the only innovation for the next one or two decades.

In the future, communication and computers will be able to process information from the real world using cyber world technology, resulting in higher speeds and grater efficiency. The usefulness and reliability of RT functions have been improving and are in practical use now. IRT innovation that combines IT and RT will support society and life and bring social transformations.

Some innovations will be･･･

Robots that can help at home by cleaning, washing dishes, tidying rooms, and putting away laundry.
Social and daily life support systems that will restock and organize products at supermarkets and department stores, perform inventory control, and fill orders and arrange delivery for online shopping.
Personal mobility devices that will provide safety transportation devices and will work in traffic jam. These devices will reduce transportation divide by substitution for some automobiles. Such devices will also enable movement from a bed to anywhere the user wants to go and will support body functions that weaken due to aging.
Human-friendly health check and treatment systems that will provide treatments such as capsule endoscopy based on doctor recommendations and record checks.

These IRT innovations have three platforms: (1) humanoids (2) social and daily life support systems (3) personal mobility devices. The science and core technology will (1) smooth communication between humans and computers using the five senses and body movement (2) develop an understanding of the purpose of human actions (3) fuse the recognition, learning and movement technologies, and (4) develop bio-machine interface technology.

How daily life support systems will change society through fusion of IRT