Mitsubishi's Wakamaru robot made its North American debut at the Embedded Systems Conference in April 2003 in San Francisco. Wakamaru is the first human-size robot built to provide companionship and/or function as a caretaker and house sitter. Wakamaru promises to be an ideal help for elderly people, the disabled, or others wishing to maintain an independent life style. Wakamaru will have its own daily rhythm, living and communicating with family members. Its main goal will be to make life easier for its “family”.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. has chosen MontaVista® Linux® operating system to power their new robot. Mitsubishi’s Ken Onishi says, "The robust operating system plays an important role in enabling Wakamaru to service a household 24 hours a day."

Wakamaru is 3.3 feet tall and weighs 60 pounds. The battery-operated robot moves about on wheels and recharges itself when its batteries run low. Wakamaru features continuous access to the Internet and comes equipped with voice and face recognition capabilities that allow the robot to search for and follow voices, faces, and movements. It has the ability to comprehend and interact with humans (such as discussing daily news it obtains via the Internet) based on a built-in dictionary and voice recognition, and can be programmed to call or e-mail a designated person, a hospital or security firm if it notices a problem. When connecting remotely to Wakamaru via its built-in camera-equipped mobile phone, users can see images of the house the robot serves and even communicate with family members at home.

Wakamaru will be available in the Japanese market first, beginning in 2004, for about 1 million yen (approximately US $14,250).

For more information visit Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and/or MontaVista Software.