Japan to Devise Safety Standards for Household Robots

Tokyo, Sept. 22 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry will devise safety standards for household robots for nursing care support by fiscal 2013, ministry officials said.

The ministry hopes the new standards will encourage Japanese
companies to develop such robots and achieve their practical applications
earlier than their rivals in other countries, the officials said.
The ministry also hopes Japanese technologies for such robots will
become the world's de facto standard, the officials said.
Robots to be covered by the safety standards are those designed to
support hard nursing-care work including bathing and rehabilitation.
To finance work on compiling the standards, the ministry has
requested budget outlays worth 2 billion yen for fiscal 2009 starting next
April.
The ministry will soon set up a task force of robotics experts and
venture firms. In fiscal 2009, the ministry will start safety and durability
tests on some robots.
Japan's market for household robots is expected to reach some one
trillion yen by calendar 2025, according to data provided by the Japan Robot
Association and other sources.