A Robot Might Just Become Your New Best Buddy

Dancing, kicking, sashaying or asking to be kissed, the robots at the Robodex 2000 exhibition are trying to spread the message that they don’t have to carry out useful tasks to make great companions--and bring in big money as well.

The exhibition, shown to reporters Thursday ahead of its opening to the public today, brings together the Aibo lion-cub pet robot from Sony Corp., the walking Asimo robot from Honda Motor Co. and more than a dozen other machines from universities and companies around Japan. The event is meant to stir up public interest in entertainment robots.

“We are trying to make robots that are sheer fun,” said Sony Digital Creatures Laboratory’s Tatsuzo Ishida, who heads the team that created a prototype humanoid called SDR-3X, or “Sony Dream Robot.”

Industrial robots require far more sophisticated technology than ones for play, Ishida said. The 20-inch tall, 10-pound SDR can’t clean house, but it can kick a soccer ball and do the “Para Para,” a hit dance in Japanese discos.