Toyota's Kirobo Mini robot aims to be your companion in the car and at home; to cost around $400

Companion robots as well as humanoid robots are a thing in Japan. And the latest addition to that list is the Kirobo Mini robot, which is a palm-sized robot that is being positioned as a synthetic baby which can carry out casual conversations while being driven around in a car or at your home. In Japan, where the birth rates are plummeting and the population is ageing fast, the Kirobo Mini is being positioned as a companion robot for the elderly as well. Toyota plans to start retailing Kirobo Mini in 2017 for 39,800 Japanese Yen which comes to around $400 (approx Rs 27,000). According to Reuters, the Kirobo Mini is Toyota’s non-automotive product which is aimed at the personal home-robot market. The Kirobo Mini is a smaller version of the Kirobo, which was a robot developed by Toyota and sent into space in 2013 along with Koichi Wakata who was the first Japanese astronaut to be commanding the International Space Station. [caption id=“attachment_338851” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Toyota[/caption] Kirobo Mini’s chief designer engineer says that the robot is meant to emulate a seated baby and tends to wobble a bit, to mimic a growing baby who is yet to learn the skills to balance itself. Toyota has gone this specific to add an element of vulnerability to the robot which will evoke an emotional reaction from its owners. It can recognise facial expressions, so it can tell if the person is happy or sad and accordingly respond to your emotions. This 10cm tall robot aims to be your companion on your long car rides as well, since according to Toyota, people spend and average of 4.3 years of their lives inside cars. The Kirobo Mini can respond to your queries, blink its eyes (thanks to the LED lights around the eyes) and has a high pitched voice just like that of a growing baby. Toyota has even gone ahead an added a cradle to go along with the Kirobo Mini, which can fit into a car’s cup holder. Sure, the idea of a robot mimicking a little baby and being marketed as a product to fill in that gap, does raise some ethical questions, but then this isn’t the first companion robot launched in Japan.

Japan is a leader as far as use of industrial robots is concerned, with around 314 machines per 100,000 employees, as per the International Federation of Robots. Toyota, which is heavily investing in artificial intelligence research, will definitely use the Kirobo Mini to gain more insights to help it make more advanced robots which can recognise as well as respond to human communication. The Kirobo Mini though looks a bit too similar to the RoboHon robot, which was developed by Sharp. But one major difference is that the RoboHon is priced at $1800 (approx Rs 1,20,000) and houses a fully functioning phone inside it. We had seen the RoboHon at this year’s Mobile World Congress, and it is pretty darn interesting.

The Toyota Kirobo Mini on the other hand requires a smartphone connection to work and it will work with a companion app which will require a 300 Yen monthly subscription fee, according to The Verge. The audio is sent from Kirobo’s microphone to the companion app running on the smartphone. From here, the voice is passed on to Toyota’s cloud service which runs it through its voice recognition service and then an appropriate response is generated which is then sent back to the companion app, to be ultimately spoken out by the Kirobo Mini Robot. The Kirobo Mini can also gesticulate when it is speaking, moving its arms and so on. Kirobo Mini also has the ability to learn about its owner through conversations. Also so long as it is lodged in the car, it can link to the Toyota car’s IT system and know about the journey and provides comments such as ‘That was a long drive, well done’. The Kirobo Mini can run on a single charge for up to 2.5 hours. One of the main reasons for the proliferation of companion robots in Japan can be attributed to the rapidly aging population who need companionship. Japan’s immigration laws do not make it easier to get a more younger population from other countries to work in the country. This has led to government looking at robots to fill in the space. One of the most popular examples of a robot being used in therapy is the Paro Robot, which is an advanced interactive robotic seal which uses animal therapy to reduce stress among the elderly. It remains to be seen how Kirobo Mini will be adapted into the average Japanese person’s lifestyle, considering its relatively economical pricing.