IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2012 - 108

*
but to look forward to this field being
cultivated by other people's abilities.

NK:

In what areas do you think
humanoids would be most useful?
MM: There are many things that
humans can't do for which robots
would be helpful, but I don't think the
robots need to be humanoids. I
actually think that it would be
extremely difficult for a humanoid to
help with housework. It's not possible
to build one at the price points of
vacuum cleaners and dishwashers.

NK:

What is your definition of a

robot?

Figure 3. Mori's sketchbook with his robot designs. (Photo courtesy of Norri Kageki.)

MM:

You can't define a robot. It's
the same as trying to define Mt. Fuji
(the highest mountain in Japan). If a
steep hill suddenly protrudes from the
flatland, you can draw a line to show
where the mountain starts, but Mt.
Fuji becomes higher so gradually that
you can't draw a line. Robots are like
Mt. Fuji. It's hard to separate what is a
robot from what is not. Asimo is so
near the peak, anyone can easily call it
a robot. But what about a dishwasher?
It can automatically wash dishes, so
you might call it a robot. The line is
blurry.

NK:

Are there any robots that you
are interested in nowadays?
MM: I have lost interest in robotics
hardware. I can see that the capabilities are improving, but there is nothing out there even now that I have not
imagined before. For example, swarm
robots. People now call them distributed autonomous systems, and there
has been much progress in terms of
their applications in the past ten years.
I had thought about it many years
ago, and I built seven robots that
move as a swarm and exhibited them
at Expo '75 held in Okinawa in 1975. I
think those were the first swarm
robots in the world. Let me show you
a sketchbook that I have kept (Figure 3). I used to cut out these pictures

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

and photographs from various magazines, and there are designs that my
students and I drew back in those
days. These are from the 1960s before
Xerox photocopies became available
in Japan. I categorized them by fingers
and shoulders (as references for
designs). I feel that people are finally
building the robots that are in this
sketchbook. Back then, I couldn't
make these robots because I didn't
have the funding. Now, my former
students and their students are building various robots. For example, the
Asimo and HRP-4C projects are being
led by my former students.

NK: If you were still at the university, are there any robots that you
would like to build? Is there anything you feel that you have left
undone?
MM: How should I put this . . . I
have never approached my research
in a way where you decide on an area
and then you try to dig out everything
in that area. I walked around and
when there was something that
smelled interesting, I would bark "Dig
here!" And then when someone else
started digging there, I would move
on to somewhere else. That's what I
have been doing. So there is no area of
specialty for me. Usually, academics

JUNE 2012

will decide on a topic and then you
can find all the papers on that topic at
that person's laboratory and so on. I
did work that way until I finished my
dissertation but that way of research
did not suit me well. So I roamed
around and jumped on to whatever
smelled interesting.

NK: Have you come across any
interesting scents recently?
MM: Right now, I am working hard
on the relationship between technology and the teachings of Buddha. To
develop robots, you need to understand humans. I think the teachings of
Buddha is the best way to understand
humans, especially with regard to
understanding the human mind.
Technology is not all good, and in certain cases, the negative aspects of
technology will appear strongly. We
need to save technology from becoming negative. That is what's on my
mind right now.
Reference
[1] M. Mori, (2005, 5 Dec.). On the uncanny
valley. In Proc. Humanoids 2005 Workshop:
Views of the Uncanny Valley, Tsukuba, Japan.
[Online]. Available: http://www.androidscience.
com/theuncannyvalley/proceedings2005/Mori
Masahiro22August2005.html

http://www.androidscience

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2012