Day-care robots win honors from METI

A feeding machine and a furry, therapeutic seal -- both designed to make life easier for older people -- were among robots honored Thursday at a government-sponsored robotics award ceremony in Tokyo.

Model Miki Murakami holds Paro, one of the winners of the government's 2006 Robot of the Year award, before the awards ceremony Thursday in Tokyo. The cooing 350,000 yen baby harp seal robot developed by Intelligent System Co. is designed to soothe people in hospitals and nursing homes. AP PHOTO

The My Spoon feeding robot, which won a prize in the service robots category of the Robot Award 2006, helps elderly or disabled people eat with a joystick-controlled swiveling arm that shovels morsels from a plate to the person's mouth.

My Spoon, which is already sold in Japan and Europe, doesn't force feed: the spoon-fitted arm stops at a preprogrammed position in front of the mouth so users can bite and swallow at their leisure, according to developer Secom Co.

Another robot awarded in the service category was Paro, a furry seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers that let it respond to petting by opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.

About 800 of the seal robots, developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science, are used for therapy in Japanese nursing homes and by autistic and disabled children, according to the award's Web site.

Also awarded at the lavish Tokyo ceremony was a mammoth, automatic vacuum-cleaner-on-wheels that uses elevators to travel unaided between floors, designed by Fuji Heavy Industries. The robot already cleans floors at several skyscrapers in central Tokyo, the Web site said.

The Motoman factory worker robot by Yaskawa Electric Corp., which emulates human hand movements, won a prize in the industrial robots category.

Robots are seen in Japan as one way to deal with a rapidly aging population and as a way to combat an impending labor shortage. The country's population of 127 million is expected to plunge 30 percent by 2055, with those aged 65 or older making up 40 percent of that figure, according to government forecasts released earlier this week.

Amid a general reluctance to accept more foreign laborers, robots are seen as a way to make up the shortfall in manpower either directly or by helping older people work longer. Robots could also help care for the country's growing elderly population, analysts say.

The Robot Award was set up earlier this year by the government to promote research and development in the robotics industry. Ten robots won prizes out of 152 entries from across Japan.