VALUE CREATIONCASE 02

Robotics

OUR INSIGHT AND STRATEGYAs an Innovation Partner for the IoT Era, Hitachi is also active in robotics research anddevelopment—sharing the future with customers, drafting a vision for the use of robotics drawn
from projections of ideal future societies, and seeking to create a comfortable and fulfilling world inwhich humans and robots enjoy a symbiotic relationship.

Robotics Solutions for the IoT Era
Robots raise quality of life and contribute to efficiency andsafety improvements not just in manufacturing but
throughout our daily lives by performing tasks that are
difficult for humans and compensating for labor shortages.
In the future, robots are expected to be able to connect
with each other to gather necessary information, learn forthemselves, and work in an ever-broadening range of fields.
Since unveiling a computer-controlled, artificiallyintelligent robot in 1970, Hitachi has integrated the fruits of
its ongoing technical research and development in this field
into a wide variety of products. In the 1980s, we helped
drive adoption of industrial robots, pioneering technicaldevelopments as part of a national project. In the 1990s,our attention turned to the practical applications ofrobotics, with development focused on how robots could
play a role in the community, including the fields of public
services, medicine, and welfare. Since the turn of thecentury, Hitachi has concentrated its efforts on humanoid
robots like EMIEW that are specifically designed forsymbiotic coexistence with humans.
Going forward, Hitachi will continue to draw on its
long-cultivated robotics technology and experience as it
puts the Lumada IoT platform to work in a wide variety offields, collaboratively creating with customers new
businesses, societies, and lifestyles in which humans androbots can symbiotically coexist.

Overview of EMIEW3 and Hitachi’s robotics IT platform
Robot (field operations)

Robotics IT platform (intelligence, analysis, operations)

Conversation

Wide area
network

Behavioral apps

Emergency operations

Action agenda

Knowledge supply

Data collection/analysis

Intelligent processing

Autonomous
mobility

LinkedBusiness system

Sensing

Product info

Customer service manual

Staff allocation

Surveillance camera

MapThe left side of the diagram depicts on-site locations, such as public facilities and stores. The right side depicts thecomputing environment.
The robotics IT platform (top right), responsible for the robot s intelligence processing and operational control, is linked
to business systems (bottom right) and controls multiple EMIEW3s installed on-site and connected via the network.
Receiving instructions from the robotics IT platform, each EMIEW3 can perform a variety of services, such as interactingwith and guiding customers. Information recognized by an EMIEW3 through its various sensors is sent to the robotics IT
platform, where it is stored and used to improve the precision of EMIEW3 operations.

24Hitachi, Ltd. Integrated Report 2017

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
multilingual support and autonomous operation, as well as
in banks and commercial facilities that handle multiple
complex services in a single branch. Through field trials at
airports, train stations, and commercial facilities, we willcontinue collaborating with customers to create newpractical applications for EMIEW3.

CEO Message

EMIEW stands for Excellent Mobility and Interactive
Existence as Workmate, directly reflecting Hitachi s goalof a robot that can exist in symbiosis with humans,
moving fluidly and communicating through speech.
EMIEW2, announced in 2007, was able to move at thepace of a fast-walking human, and combined a numberof functions to allow it to interact and guide customers,such as autonomous movement, the ability to detecthuman voices in noisy environments, functions torecognize objects based on data on the internet, and theability to search for objects using multiple networked
cameras within a facility as eyes. EMIEW3 inherits thebest of EMIEW2 s abilities while adding new functionalityof its own, and its announcement in 2016 is anothermilestone in robot evolution toward symbiotic
coexistence with their human creators.

Strategic Focus

Hitachi has long promoted the development of robots thatcoexist symbiotically with humans, aiming to create robot
services with rich communicative abilities that can safely
and symbiotically coexist with humans.
Unveiled in 2016, EMIEW3 agglomerates Hitachi’s
decades of knowledge and experience into a robot
featuring high levels of both information processing andautonomy. The robotics IT platform, responsible for
information processing and control of the robot itself, islocated in the cloud. It connects to the robot in real time,enabling it to perform advanced support services likeinteracting with and guiding customers. EMIEW3 canidentify customers in need of support and approach themon its own initiative, share information with other EMIEW3units, and hand off service tasks to other parties whennecessary. EMIEW3 is equipped with a function to regain astanding position by itself in the unlikely event that it should
fall over.
Hitachi aims to use EMIEW3 for guidance services inairports, train stations, and other situations that may require

PMORPH2: A Robot to Investigate Fukushima Daiichi

Value Creation* PMORPH2 was developed with the Subsidy Project of Decommissioning
and Contaminated Water Management by Ministry of Economy, Trade, andIndustry (METI).

Management & Governance

Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd. (Hitachi-GE) is working
toward the decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power
Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Sincejoining the International Research Institute for Nuclear
Decommissioning (IRID), founded in 2013 with the aim ofdeveloping the necessary technology for thisunprecedentedly difficult decommissioning project,
Hitachi-GE has advanced its research and development
efforts toward this goal.
In March 2017, PMORPH2—a robot to investigate thebasement floor inside the Unit 1 Primary Containment Vessel(PCV) developed by Hitachi-GE in its role as a member ofIRID—was sent into the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station Unit 1 PCV to investigate the condition of the fueldebris (melted and fallen nuclear fuel) within the vessel.*
Based on technology developed by the Hitachi Group,
PMORPH2 is able to pass through a narrow pipe roughly 10
cm in diameter, and has the unique ability to transform from astraight, thin shape like the letter “I” into the shape of theletter “U” in order to maneuver stably inside the PCV.
The investigation was carried out by taking
measurements and photographs at five locations 10 times
over five days. Due to sediment inside the PCV, it did not
succeed in photographing the fuel debris itself, but the rangeof data it obtained will be used in future explorations ofmethods for removing the fuel debris.

Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd.
Satoshi Okada, PhD
Senior Engineer, Nuclear Equipment Design Department, Nuclear Engineering andProduct Division

In highly radioactive areas, electronics are of limited use. As a result, whenusing a robot to investigate the PCV interior, the skill of the operator is also
a vital element. The key to a successful probe is harmonious teamwork
between human and robot. The road to decommissioning is daunting, but
this investigation result has allowed us to take another step toward that goal.
At Hitachi-GE, developers do not just improve by sharing and discussing
ideas internally—they also collect information from around the world to use
when developing new technology.

Hitachi, Ltd. Integrated Report 201725

Performance

EMIEW3: The Humanoid RobotOur Business Model

Hitachi’s latest robotics technology addresses the needs of today’s society andaims at a symbiotic coexistence of humans and robots.