Tokyo - Japanese researchers have turned a humanoid industrial machine into a master of Japanese traditional dance in a bid to use a robot as a guardian of cultural heritage.
The 1,5-metre-tall robot HRP-2 Promet, which looks like an animation character wearing a visor, shuffled its gray metal feet and waved its hands in the air in synch with a woman in a kimono on Tuesday as researchers showed off their invention.
Katsushi Ikeuchi, a professor of engineering at Tokyo University, said the robot, which is usually used at construction sites, was taught traditional Japanese dance to preserve the art for the future.
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The slow-paced dance, which is performed in groups and accompanied by lutes and other Japanese instruments, is rapidly losing ground in 21st-century Japan, with many young people only encountering it at local festivals.
Ikeuchi has in the past tried to use technology to keep digital records of historical objects such as Buddha statues and old temples.
"It is also important for us to digitally record intangible things such as traditional Japanese dancing," he said.
He said he programmed the robot to replicate human movements.
"Like Hollywood's CG (Computer Graphic) cartoon films, we recorded physical moves of a dancing master and put it in the robot," Ikeuchi said.
"It was very difficult. The robot can easily flip just by imitating human moves," Ikeuchi said.
HRP-2 Promet was created in 2003 by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and heavy industry maker Kawada Industries Inc.
Priced at 38-million yen (R2,2-million), it can help workers at construction sites and can also drive a car.
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