NZ faces a robotic future

This Wall-E-like robot - named Budd-E - was built from basic components by a Unitec group while touring some of Japan's renowned robotics institutes this month.

New Zealand needs to prepare itself for a robot future - that's the message from a delegation of young Kiwis on a tour of several of Asia's renowned robotics institutes.

A group from Unitec in Auckland hope what they learn in Japan and Brunei will ultimately be passed on to lecturers, teachers and students after they return home this month.

"Future smart homes and smart cities will use the robots extensively and New Zealand community needs to be part of it," said Dila Beisembayeva, who is travelling with fellow delegates Adam Deery, Wafaa Che Rose and Josh Prow.

They have just spent two weeks getting to grips with the latest robotics innovations at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology, a public graduate school in Tokyo.

The visit has given them insights into Robot Service Network Protocol (RSNP) - a common interface for connecting robots to the internet - and hands-on training in the institute's service robot lab.

Next month, the group will travel to Fukuoka to spend two weeks at Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech).

"Kyutech is one of the highest ranking universities in the world that offers research and educational programmes on humanoid robots, soccer robots, robots for smart homes and cities and huge robots used in the shipping industry," Ms Beisembayeva said.
"A number of workshops will be organised for us in which we will be trained how to build robots from basic components when we come back to New Zealand."
Their tour will end in Brunei at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, where a team of students have been developing robots using similar technologies to the Unitec team.
Unitec had been awarded $120,000 from the Prime Minister's Scholarships for Asia to give promising robotics students the opportunity to study with international institutions at the cutting edge.
Mr Deery said he hoped the experience would help set him up for a career in service robots.
"It's definitely going to develop very quickly in the next couple of years."
Unitec computing senior lecturer and robotics programme coordinator, Dr Chandimal Jayawardena, said there was a shortage of IT professionals in New Zealand, including in robotics, and the scholarships would help bolster interest in the area.
"Currently, New Zealand doesn't have the capability to make robots and our secondary schools do not generally teach robotics as part of their curriculum."
Their visit comes as New Zealand is building new ties with international robotics researchers.
Last year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment offered researchers a grant to link up with Japan on smart projects for robotics and "human assistive devices" for elderly care.
This followed the 2013 introduction of Disney-like HealthBots to the homes of elderly people in Gore, where the robots took patients' heart rates and reminded them to take their medication.
Australasia is estimated to be home to just one per cent of the world's robots - unsurprisingly, Japan has the highest proportion (40 per cent) followed by Europe (32 per cent) and North America (16 per cent).
While the domestic robot market remains limited in New Zealand, last year American company Rethink Robotics launched in Australasia its Baxter Research Robot, which has long flexible arms, a screen for a face and an open source platform allowing users to customise it.
Last January also saw the first time a humanoid robot was 3D-printed in New Zealand.
Each component of the life-sized InMoov robot was downloaded as open-access hardware, and then printed by researchers at the University of Canterbury's Human Interface Technology Lab (HITLab).