My major, of which I am in my engineering semester, is focused primarily on control systems of robotics.   My primary interest in the field has been geared towards medical robotics, which I feel will continue to be a fast growing area.  Possibly one day the surgery techniques we see and hear about today will be considered quite archaic in their efforts.  This interest of mine has over the past few years driven me to not only learn a lot about robotics, but also to see more modern projects that would not normally be seen.

I believe a common stereotype regarding Japan is that they must be far superior in robotics, and in general electronics.

While I am not arguing that there have been many advances in Robotics and programming coming out of Japan, a brief study will reveal most advances in robots have actually began in America and Scotland.   There is alot of history that is behind the controls of robotics & electronics and if I were to make an analogy to this....to believe that all robotics/electronics 'come out of' Japan would be like say all mathematics and physics comes out of England (er...I. Newton)...

Truly there are many advances coming out of Japan, but also out of France , Germany, America, etc... the list is endless.

One such system is the Da Vinci Surgical Robot, now in over 800 hospitals throughout the United States and Europe (including Mission Hospital in Asheville).  If anyone has ever viewed an open-heart surgery they will immediately recognize the benefit of the Da Vinci Robot, which is minimally evasive (requiring roughly a 0.5" incision) to preform heart surgeries (including by-passes).

The advantages of the Da Vinci System can quickly be seen in the next brief video (this one being out of Japan):

A common robot from Honda (truly a multinational company) is the Asimo as can be seen in the following commercial.  While this may not be considered entirely a japanese design, much of the controls for this did come from Honda's Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center in Japan.  What most people do not see with the Asimo, and ALL robotics, is the failures that take place (see second video) and really what goes into designing and troubleshooting these type of humanoids.  The research and development really becomes a multinational effort.

As can be seen in much of the Japanese robots, one of the major areas of research and development in Japan has been in control theory and system modeling.  Some the movements are truly lifelike and take into account many more degrees of freedom that the typical robotics we see more regularly in the United

Another one of my favorites (not related to medicine) which is based off of the Asimo (or Human...)  is the Qrio, originally called the Sony Dream Robot (SDR):

The next video is an interesting view from one of the stores in Japan.  I like how the 'toys' that are generally sold in Japan are much more interesting than what we see in stores here in the States... I believe in this respect the market here would need to catch up with Japan if the average person wanted to be able to buys these.

One I have enjoyed, although not realistic (I really cannot wait until the toys we buy are this interactive !):