History of Robotics in Japan Year Event Organization Researchers 1963 Introductory paper on robots appeared Hitachi CRL Ejiri Study on fingers from engineering viewpoints TIT Yamashita, Mori Developments of servo-manipulators Mitsubishi Electric 　 Hitachi CRL Ejiri et al. 1968 Industrial robots introduced  (Unimation, USA) Kawasaki Heavy Industries 　 1969 Nation's first industrial robots developed (Kawasaki-Unimate) 　 Computer control of artificial hand and arm U of Tokyo Inoue 1970 Demonstration of nation's first intelligent robots Hitachi CRL Ejiri et al. ETL Tsuji, Shirai et al. 1972 Active developments of industrial robots  started in industry 　 Snake-like robot mechanism TIT Umetani, Hirose et al. 1973 Realization of automatic semiconductor assembly based on visual pattern recognition technique Hitachi CRL Ejiri et al. World-first biped walking robot,  WABOT-1 Waseda U Kato et al. Vertically articulated industrial robot, MOTOMAN Yaskawa 　 1974 Insertion robot with tactile sensors Hitachi CRL Goto et al. Laser tracker MITI ETL Ishii, Nagata 1975 Arc-welding intelligent industrial robot, Mr. AROS Hitachi MERL 　　 1978 SCARA-type industrial robot proposed  and its development started Yamanashi U.,  Fujitsu, Toshiba etc. Makino 　 1982 Personal micro robot, MoveMaster Mitsubishi 　 Dynamic walking of biped robot U of Tokyo, etc. Miura et al. 1983 National project on robots for hazardous  environment started MITI 　 RSJ established, and publication of a  Japanese journal started RSJ ― 1984 Guide-dog robot MITI MEL Tachi, Komoriya 1985 Biped robot WHL-11 demonstrated at  Tsukuba world exhibition Waseda U. and Hitachi Kato, Fujie et al. Musician robot demonstrated at Tsukuba world exhibition Waseda U Kato, Oteru et al Four-legged walking mechanism TIT Hirose et al. 1986 RSJ started publication of an English  journal RSJ ― 1987 Multi-window vision system U of Tokyo Inoue et al. 1988 International conference IROS started IEEE, RSJ, SICE, NTF ― Liquid crystal range finder Osaka U Sato, Inokuchi 1989 Tele-existence MITI MEL Tachi, Arai 1990 RSJ approved as authorized legal  corporation RSJ　 ― 1991 RSJ registered as authorized legal corporation RSJ　 ― Four-legged robot for hazardous  environment Hitachi MERL Fujie, Hosoda et al. Panorama-type omni-directional vision system Osaka U, etc. Tsuji, Ishiguro et al. 1992 RSJ 10th anniversary RSJ ― 1993 RSJ 10th anniversary commemorative  meeting held RSJ (at U of Electro- communication) ― 1994 Tracking vision Fujitsu,  U of Tokyo Uchiyama, Inoue et al. 1995 Non-holonomic manipulator U of Tokyo Nakamura et al. Robot assembly by robot Funac Sakakibara et al. 1996 Walking training machine and walking  assistance machine Hitachi MERL Fujie, Nemoto et al. Biped robot, P2 Honda 　　 1997 First World RoboCup held in Nagoya ― 1999 4-legged robot, AIBO Sony 　　 Experiment of ETS-VII space robot NASDA 　　 2000 Biped robot, ASIMO Honda 　 Space robot experiment, and RSJ medal  went to space NASDA Astronaut: Koichi Wakata 2001 RSJ medal returned with the authorization  as a NASA official flight kit 2002 Rescue robot project started MEXT 　 RSJ 20th anniversary and its commemorative meeting held RSJ  (at Osaka U) ― 2003 HRP project completed METI, NEDO, MSTC Inoue, Hirukawa et al. 2004 Mental-commit robot PARO put in use METI AIST Shibata 2005 Variety of robots demonstrated at Aichi World Exhibition NEDO and Various companies 　 Cooperative research project on next-　generation robotics started METI 　 2006 Project for openning new service robot  market started METI 　 Robot-of-the-year Award started METI 　 2007 New small-scale medical operation robot  system guided by MRI images Hitachi and others 　 2008 Robot suit HAL put on market Tsukuba U. Sankai GPS-based rice-planting robot NARO 　 2009 Humanoid robot HRP-04C METI AIST 　 Note: ETL: Electro-technical Laboratory of MITI Hitachi CRL: Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi MERL: Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. HRP: Humanoid Robotics Project IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers MEL: Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of MITI METI: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology MITI: Ministry of International Trade and Industry MSTC: Manufacturing Science and Technology Center NARO: National Agriculture and Food Research Organization NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA NASDA: National Space Development Agency of Japan NEDO: New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization NTF: New Technology Foundation, Japan RSJ: Robotics Society of Japan SCARA: Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm SICE: Society of Instrument and Control Engineers, Japan TIT: Tokyo Institute of Technology