Journal of International and Advanced Japanese Studies
Vol. 7, March 2015, pp. 27–45
Doctoral Program in International and Advanced Japanese Studies
Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Tsukuba
http://japan.tsukuba.ac.jp/research/

ArticleA Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany
and Japan: “The Ethical Relationship Between ‘Robot’and ‘Human Body’ as a Management Challenge”
Martin POHL
University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate Professor
Beginning in science-ﬁction literature a century ago, the concept of robot today has become a technicalreality. Industrial robots are mature and used in large scale – and the technicality of service robots is
improving rapidly. This technical success made possible by competent management has in future to besafeguarded by integrating a balanced ethical relationship between ‘robot’ and ‘human body’ as anenlightened self-interest for enterprise.
The analysis of Japanese and German companies based on companies’ web pages shows that progressin robots is a global phenomenon. The competition between robot-companies is a strong positive driver sothat non-technical factors starting from R&D to production up to the delivery to the customer may play a
crucial role in future: “ethics” as a management challenge in the context of the global robot markets may
be an important success-factor for future robot-generations. Ongoing monitoring of the topic discussed is
crucial — it is a joint task for management and science.
Keywords: Robot, Ethics, Management, Japan, Germany

Introduction
Robots grow quickly to technical maturity and a number of resources were used during the recent decades torealize this success. According to the EU-Commission, the global market for robots is 22 Bio. Euro. 1 The
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “In 2020, I want to gather all the world’s robots and aim to hold an
Olympics where they can compete in technical skills. We want to make robots a major pillar of our economic
growth strategy.”2 When robots are successfully implemented on a large scale, many social, economic and inparticular ethical questions will result. Issues such as the impact on the relationship between society and robots
are presently in the early stages of discussion: regarding its development, the broader roles they will play, theireffect on change in enterprise, at large and on society and culture itself. However, this not a question that isbeyond enterprise – rather the opposite: do enterprises risk their competitiveness if they ignore obtaining
knowledge about these topics? Isn’t it necessary that robot-makers include ethical matters in their businessmission simply to survive in global competition?

1 HAASS, Uwe: „2,8 Milliarden Euro zur Staerkung der Fuehungsrolle der Robotik in Europa“, press-release by „EURobotics“, without date, (http://media.nmm.de/36/15052014sparcpressreleasegerman_27743236.pdf, 2014 Sept 29).
According to this paper, Europe has a global market share of 35 %.
2 DEMITROU, Danielle: “Japan’s PM plans 2020 Robot Olympics”, ‘The Telegraph’ from June 20, 2014, (http://www.
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10913610/Japans-PM-plans-2020-Robot-Olympics.html, 2014 Sept 29)

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To shed light on these questions: The discussion will debate the relationship of ‘robots’ and ‘human body’with the aim of bringing these topics closer together, ﬁrst from a legal and second from a cultural point of view.
In a third step robot manufacturers web sites will be analyzed, initially German companies and later Japanesecompanies. Based on the presented examples, similarities and differences in Japanese and German robot
manufacturers are determined. In a fourth and concluding step the previous concept will be set into context tofocus on a theoretical framework, so that management will be able to act accordingly towards society.
What is a ‘robot’? The word ‘robot’ (translated from Czech as “work”) was created in 1920 by the Czech artist
Josef Čapek for his play: R.U.R: Rossum’s Universal Robots. Before the creation of this word these machines
were called ‘automat’ or ‘semi-automat’. The word ‘robot’ itself went through many metamorphoses with theresult that a general accepted deﬁnition does not exist. It is generally agreed that a robot is a machine with adegree of autonomous function. The question is: what speciﬁcally distinguishes it as being a robot rather thansimply an automated machine?
The US-American ‘Robotic Industries Association’ indicates, “a robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional
manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools or specialized devices through variable programmed
motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.“ 3 Following the ‘Association of German Engineers’ (VDI),
industrial robots are universal usable automated moving devices with several axes, operating according toprogrammed motions. The sequence of movements is free – they may be guided by sensors (VDI-Guideline No.
2860). 4 The ‘Japanese Industrial Standard Association’ deﬁnes a robot as “a mechanical system which has
ﬂexible [autonomous] motion [and intelligent] functions analogous to …living organisms, or combines suchmotion to the human will. In this context, intelligent functions mean the ability to perform at least one of thefollowing: judgment, recognition, adaptation or learning. 5 The different deﬁnitions make it difﬁcult to compare
the robot industry on an international level, for example the number of produced robots. 6
In the following deﬁnition, a ‘robot’ is beyond a machine capable of self-guided actions, capable in that theseactions constitute responses to external stimuli. Such external stimuli can be spoken questions (requiring ananswer by the robot), moving (avoiding collision) or identiﬁcation (recognizing individuals). Fulﬁlling thesecriteria, in this paper, a robot may be considered an autonomous, responsive and stand-alone machine. Thismeans a robot must have by deﬁnition sensors (“eyes”) and a physical body – a robot is more than a virtualenvironment such as a machine working based on artiﬁcial intelligence. How to deal with the ‘autonomy’ ofentities without bodies will be discussed at the very end of this research – and in the next section theassociation between robots and ethics will be illuminated.

3 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Roboter” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboter, 2014 Sept 29). The web page of the associationis: (http://www.robotics.org/, 2014 Sept 29)

4 FORUM SONDERMASCINENBAU (Ed.): “Industrieroboter” (http://www.forum-sondermaschinenbau.de/seiten/
Industrieroboter.htm, 2014 Sept 29) translated into English by the author.

5 SHENKAR, Oded.: “The Robot Masters: How Japan Has Won the Race to the Roboticised Workplace”, in: International
Journal of Human Factors in Manufacturing, Vol.1, Issue 2, 1991, p.145. The ‘Japan Robot Association’ speciﬁes andcategorizes robots in: Manual Manipulator, Fixed Sequence Robot, Variable Sequence Robot, Playback Robot,
Numerical Control Robot, Intelligent Robot. In: WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Roboter” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboter#Deﬁnition_nach_JARA, 2014 Sept 29)
6 In the segment of industrial robots, 179.000 industrial robots were globally sold in 2013: about 100.000 in Asia,
43.000 in Europe and 30.000 in North-America – the rest in other parts of the world. In the same year, companies inJapan, the USA, Korea and Germany installed about 50 % of the global robot-production. Litzeberger, Gudrun:International Federation of Robotics, Statistical Department, Press Release June 04, 2014 (http://www.worldrobotics.
org/uploads/tx_zeifr/June_04__2014_PI_IFR_Weltmarkt_Roboter.pdf, 2014 Sept 29). Since the deﬁnition of robot
varies a lot from country to country, a comparison in between countries is impossible: In 1983 the Japan Robot
Association characterized in 1983 47.000 machines as robots. Using the German criteria (Verein Deutscher
Ingenieure, Guideline 2860) for the same machines, only about 3.000 of these machines would have been deﬁned as
robots. In: WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Roboter” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboter, 2014 Sept 29)28

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japan

1. Robots and Human Body – Legal Academic Approaches for an Ethical Edging Closer
With robots, human beings are approaching the production of intelligent and autonomous entities. This
necessitates the developers and manufacturers of robots analyze and understand the human body from an
outside perspective – and as an inside reﬂection of intelligence. It includes learning, evaluation and decision
making. Setting that into an ethics framework indicates that a human has to set himself within a robots
perspective which may result in the fact that an intelligent robot may have a different point of view of learning,
evaluation and decision making. 7 Many disciplines must be included in this process: Medicine and psychology,
literature and linguistics, engineering, management and law, to mention a few.
For bringing together robots and ethics, the thoughts of the science ﬁction author Isaac ASIMOV may givesome direction. He described in his short story “Runaround”, published in 1942, what is today called the ‘Three
Laws of Robotics’ or ‘Asimov’s Laws’.
Law 1: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
Law 2: “A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conﬂictwith the First Law.”
Law 3: “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conﬂict with the First or
Second Law.” 8
Other science ﬁction-authors added laws. They can be divided into two genealogical trees:
A. The 1974 the Bulgarian science-ﬁction-writer Lyuben DILOV introduced in his novel, “The Trip of Icarus”,
what he called ‘fourth law of robotics’:
Law 4: “A robot must establish its identity as a robot in all cases” . 9 (Interpretation: Designers of a tool must
not follow that the new tool has to have the same design as existing tools – psycho-robots do not need exactly tolook like humans what may cause misunderstandings between human and robots.) 10
In 1983 the Bulgarian science-ﬁction writer Nikola KESAROVSKI entitled a short-story “The Fifth Law of
Robotics”:
Law 5: “A robot must know it is a robot”. (Interpretation: Killing of a human by a robot is a violation of theﬁrst law. It is also a violation of Dilov’s fourth law. But it is crucial from a legal perspective to add the ﬁfth law
to hold the robot responsible.)
B. Harry HARRISON wrote in 1986 his story entitled, “The Fourth Law of Robotics”.
Law 4: “A robot must reproduce - as long as such reproduction does not interfere with the First or Second or
Third Law.” 11 (Interpretation: To liberate robots, they built new robots who view their creator robots as parental
ﬁgures. The question behind this is: are intelligent robots human-being with human rights.)
In 2013 Hutan ASHRAFIAN proposed an additional sixth law, also called “AionAI” (artiﬁcial intelligence-onartiﬁcial intelligence) law.
Law 6: “All robots endowed with comparable human reason and conscience should act towards one another ina spirit of brotherhood.” (Interpretation: When and where future artiﬁcial intelligences will interact amongst
themselves, this may lead to exploitation. In this situation, robots would beneﬁt from adopting a universal law
7 FISCHER, Roland: “Das Kind in der Maschine”, in Technology Review of Sept 30, 2013, (http://www.heise.de/tr/
artikel/Das-Kind-in-der-Maschine-1953206.html, 2014 Sept 29)

8 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Three Laws of Robotics”, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics, 2014 Sept 29);
FIELD, Chris: “Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics” (http://akikok012um1.wordpress.com/asimovs-three-laws-ofrobotics/, Sept 29, 2014)
9 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Lyuben Dilov” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyuben_Dilov, 2014, Sept 29)
10 WIKIPEDIA (ed.) “Three Laws of Robotics”, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics, 2014, Sep.29)
11 A book edited by Martin H. Greenberg in 1989 book written in honor of science ﬁction author Isaac Asimov withthe title: “Foundation’s Friends, Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov”, in: WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Three Laws of Robotics”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics, Sept 29, 2013)

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Volume 7 / March 2015of rights to recognize inherent dignity and the inalienable rights of artiﬁcial intelligences. Such a consideration
may help prevent exploitation and abuse of rational and sentient beings, but would also importantly reﬂect on ahuman moral code of ethics and the humanity of human civilization.) 12
The six (seven) laws touch in profound way the relationship between robots and the human body including
its integrity and physical safety, but also its creation. They touch the most cognizant moments of humanexistence: ‘giving birth’ and ‘passing away’.
The legislator has a robust interest in promoting a balanced relationship between robots and ethics thatwould generally be accepted in public. States which host innovative companies with a high market share inrobot-technology do not beneﬁt only from the accumulation of knowledge in this high-tech-ﬁeld. Robots, and inparticular humanoid robots, allow states to position themselves as high-tech hubs as a whole – robots are hightech cultural representatives par excellence. States will closely cooperate with management by creating a legal
framework and by giving incentives for technology development.
The Republic of Korea has gone further than any other country in the world. It implemented a ‘Robot Ethics
Charter.’ The government had targets for doing so: (i) Korea should serve as a test bed country for robots, (ii)Preparation of the future society towards a partnership between human and robots according to dynamicchanges both in society and technology, (iii) Social and consumer demands for robots which enhance the wish
for a partnership between people and robots, (iv) Conﬁrmation of national consensus on robot ethics in Korea. 13
The legal effect of the charter may serve as example that law supports innovation, for example bycompanies, instead of hindering it. More crucial: The charter may help management to create the generalatmosphere needed for introducing a new technology needed for a positive climate of investment.14 This relates
to the next topic of discussion: What should management consider before making a decision in the context ofrobots?
2. Robots and Human Body – Cultural Academic Approaches for an Ethical Edging Closer
The ‘Robot Ethic Charter’ is a good example for merging not only robots and ethics, but also of robots andethics with management. The most advanced robot being able to improve the quality of human life may be a
ﬂop if not being accepted by the people whose life will be affected. And society which perceives new robots as athreat rather than a blessing may result in shifting business chances into other regions of the world. The crux isthat from the very early stage of the product-life-cycle of a robot, the phase of research and development, ethicalquestions have to be strongly considered. These ethical questions touch the global perspective, so it isimportant to set standards and deﬁne structures of business models or even entire markets.
Knowing about different perceptions of ethics and culture are crucial for management. With the examples ofGermany and Japan in mind, robot-related thoughts in the ﬁelds of ethics, culture and science-ﬁction literature
will give greater insight for management when compared among the two countries.

12 ASHRAFIAN, Hutan: “AIonAI: A Humanitarian Law of Artiﬁcial Intelligence and Robotics”, in: (http://link.springer.
com/article/10.1007%2Fs11948-013-9513-9#page-1, Sept 29, 2014)13 Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy of Korea (ed.).: “Establishing a Korean Ethics Robot Charter”, Seoul,
April 14, 2007, Handout of the Ministry, p.4-6, (http://www.roboethics.org/icra2007/contributions/slides/Shim_
icra%2007_ppt.pdf, Sept 29, 2014)
14 HILGENDORF, Eric; KIM, Mink-Yu: Legal Regulation of Autonomous Systems in South Korea on the Example ofRobot Legislation, without date and location, p.6 and p.13 (http://www.jura.uni-wuerzburg.de/uploads/media/Legal_
Regulation_of_Autonomous_Systems_in_South_Korea_on_the_Example_of_Robot_Legislation_-_Hilgendorf_
Kim_05.pdf, Sept 29, 2014)30

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japan

Ethics has many manifestations – it is crucial to underline the difference between East and West.
In Western philosophy, three ethics groups are ofparticular relevance: 15
Aristotle argues that virtues, such as justice or
charity, are dispositions to act in ways that beneﬁt boththe person possessing them and that person’s society.
Kant makes the concept of duty central to morality:
humans are bound, from knowledge of their duty as
rational beings, to obey the categorical imperative torespect other rational beings.
Bentham works out that the principle of conduct
should follow utilitarianism so as to be the greatest
happiness or beneﬁt for the greatest number of people.

In Eastern philosophy, there is no strict dividing line
between ethics on the one hand and religion andphilosophy on the other.
Confucian ethics is focused around ideals of characterand the constituting traits or virtues. Among the traits
connected to ethical nobility is the ability to judge what
the right thing to do is in the given situation: philosophy
is grounded on evidence and rigorous thinking. 16
What Shintoism, Buddhism, and Daoism combine isthat ethics is understood as spontaneous caring andconcern for others that has been achieved by lifelong
practice yielding a transfor mation of bothunderstanding and action. Thus, true ethical action
results from being ethical through and through. For
those who follow the way, there are still r ules,
regulations, calculations, and precepts, but the goal andheart of ethics is the spontaneous and selflessexpression of human-heartedness. 17

Also culture has different manifestations in Germany and Japan. Important topics which touch the relation
between ‘robot’ and human body’ are:Role of Objects: In Europe, several movements
focused on the idea that natural objects and man-madeobjects are in contradiction to each other. The Christian
god provided a world which is as such good for humans-who have a soul- as it exists. 18

Role of Objects: In Japan, man-made objects can beused to recreate nature without any hesitation. Natureand technology are interconnected. There is no religious
contradiction as well since all things have in Shintoism
its spirit ? whether natural or man-made. 19

Labor: New technologies may destroy jobs of old
industries. 20

Labor: At least theoretical Japanese core-staff cannot
be ﬁred which reduces competition between machines
and labor. 21

15 AGALGATTI, B.H.; KRISHNA, S.: “Business Ethics”, Pune 2007 p.51 https://books.google.de/books?id=
WIkcJq5Y3t8C&pg=PP3&lpg=PP3&dq=AGALGATTI+2007&source=bl&ots=nwgrWjQChQ&sig=0nydxPLBOBJBOCmDFSTXi8R1fcM&hl=ja&sa=X&ei=yWeOVK6BHpL08QWx7YCgBg&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&
q=AGALGATTI%202007&f=false, Sept. 29, 2014
16 WONG, David, “Chinese Ethics”, in: ZALTA, Edward N. (ed.): The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring2013 Edition), (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/ethics-chinese/, Sept 29, 2014)17 CARTER, Robert E.: “Japanese Ethics”, in: EDELGLASS, William; GARFIELD, Jay L.: The Oxford Handbook ofWorld Philosophy, Sept 2011 edition, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195328998.003.0027 (http://www.oxfordhandbooks.
com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195328998.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195328998-e-27, Sept 29, 2014)
18 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Teleological argument” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleological_argument, Sept 29, 2014)19 GLASER, Peter: “Wo sind die Roboter?“ in Technology Review of March 25, 2011, (http://www.heise.de/tr/blog/
artikel/Wo-sind-die-Roboter-1213900.html, Sept 29, 2014)
20 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (ed.): “Swing Riots” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/
bloodlines/workinglife.shtml?entry=swing_riots&theme=workinglife, Sept 29, 2014), MATTHES, Sebastian:„Technikfeindlichkeit: Die Angst der Deutschen vor neuen Technologien“, in: The Hufﬁngton Post from June
29,2014 (http://www.hufﬁngtonpost.de/2014/06/29/technikfeindlichkeit-deutschland_n_5541202.html, Sept 29, 2014)
21 POHL, Martin: „Arbeitsmarkt und Arbeitsbeziehungen in Japan“, in: Woedemann, Raimund; Yamaguchi, Karin(ed.): Laenderbericht Japan. Die Erarbeitung der Zukunft, Bonn 2014, p.262

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Time spirit: the scientiﬁc rationalization of nature
within the Age of Enlightenment was opposed, by suchas Romanticism, but in part also by moder nphilosophies such as the Frankfurt School. 22

Time spirit: Since the Meiji-period, the large majorityof Japanese intellectuals see machines as anenlargement of human ability.

Decision-making structure: It is based on a stringent
legal structure trying to insure individual freedom andself-esteem. The legal system is easily accessible andwith reasonable cost to and for citizens. 23

Decision-making structure: It is based on experienceand seniority. As a result it can be described as a
combination of superior-dependent and both withuncertain outcome and ﬁnding a pragmatic solution. 24

Communication in politics: In a bottom-up communication active public groups talk about robots and its
impacts on the process of designing and manufacturing,
but also the role of robots in society. 25

Communication in politics: In a top-down communication politicians discuss robots in the context of the aging
society and as growth industry without questioning it.
The general public gives minimal input in the process ofdesigning and manufacturing of robots. 26

In addition, there are particular cultural stand-alone speciﬁcities in Germany and Japan. In Germany
generally speaking culturally robot makers follow the idea that function dominates design: core function is how
a robot cooperates with a human. It is not a target to duplicate human in the design of a robot, except if that ispart of the core function. 27 In Japan, school-education is still focused on providing workers for industrial massproduction. Today, the large majority of robots “work” in that ﬁeld. In that sense it is easy for people develop afeeling about what robots may do. On the other hand, robots are outside any human hierarchy, so a machine-likehuman counterpart is a rather relaxing alternative to the pressure and the complex Japanese way ofcommunication with “real” people. 28 Another, tough different point is: Formally Japan has a differentiated legal
system similar to that of Western-Europe. However, the application of this legal system is different. The
Japanese understanding allows – with all its advantages and disadvantages – ﬂexibility in research anddevelopment, but also in application of robots.
Science ﬁction literature was and is crucial for modern robot development. Many robot researchers andentrepreneurs developed their ﬁrst relationship with robots from literature, for example the president ofSoftbank, Masayoshi Son invested in the robot “pepper”, see section 3.2. Are there also different manifestationsin science ﬁction literature between East and West?
In European science ﬁction literature of the early 20th century new technologies were on the one hand praisedsuch as in the work of Hans DOMINIK, but also their danger was pointed out. In the ﬁlm ‘Metropolitan’ byHans LANG robots were associated with fear. If humans ignore the laws of nature or even want ‘to play god’,humans will fail. In Japan, science-ﬁction literature in part adopted this reﬂection between enthusiasm and
22 ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA (ed.): “Romanticism”, (http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/
Romanticism, Sept 29, 2014)23 DANNENMANN, Gerhard: “Access to Justice: An Anglo-German Comparison”, (http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/
literature/access.htm, Sept. 29, 2014)24 POHL, Martin: “Arbeitsmarkt und Arbeitsbeziehungen in Japan“, in: Woedemann, Raimund; Yamaguchi, Karin(ed.): Laenderbericht Japan. Die Erarbeitung der Zukunft, Bonn 2014, p.262

25 GLASER, Peter: Die Roboter kommen. Waschmaschinen in Frauengestalt, in ‚Focus‘-Magazine of July 26, 2007,(http://www.focus.de/digital/multimedia/glasers_modernste_zeiten/die-roboter-kommen_aid_67643.html, Sept. 29,
2014)
26 KIMURA, Takeshi: “Introducing Roboethics to Japanese Society: A Proposal”, in: Kimura, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics
Technical Reports. Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011, p.98
27 Without editor: „Rund um Roboter: Wichtigste Robotik-Konferenz eröffnet“, in ‚Focus‘-Magazine of May 07.2013,(http://www.focus.de/wissen/diverses/zukunft-auf-der-icra-rund-um-roboter-wichtigste-robotik-konferenzeroeffnet_aid_983234.html, Sept. 29, 2014)
28 GLASER, Peter: “Wo sind die Roboter?“ in Technology Review of March 25, 2011, (http://www.heise.de/tr/blog/
artikel/Wo-sind-die-Roboter-1213900.html, Sept 29, 2014)32

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japananxiety towards new technologies. But, at the same time, since the re-opening of Japan, modernization,
especially technical modernization, were seen as the core target of the country. Robots were – when they were
described in the ﬁrst half of the 20th century, a major cultural representation for success in science and in alarger sense a status of political and economic power. Thus characters such as ‘Tanku Tankuro’, a military
robot who appeared in Japanese comics in the 1930s, gained signiﬁcant popularity as a symbol of thetechnology that would aid the Japanese conquest of Asia. 29 Since the 1950’s, ‘Tetsuwan Atomu’ (translated as“Ironarm Atom”) and named in English ‘Astro Boy’, is a manga series from the Japanese author Osamu
TEZUKA with a total of 2000 pages written from 1952-68. 30 ‘Tetsuwan Atomu’ had a strong impact on theJapanese population and many Japanese developed their interest in robots due to this ﬁctional ﬁgure. 31‘Tetsuwan Atomu’ works together with humans in a friendly way – and points out that war creates innocent
victims. He “is shown ﬁghting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies are robot-hating humans, robots
gone berserk, or alien invaders.” 32 TEZUKA pointed out, that “the publishers wanted me to stress a peaceful
future, where Japanese science and technology were advanced and nuclear power was used for peacefulpurposes”. 33
However, setting the development of robots in this dividing cultural context only falls short. There are factors
which both regions have in common such as the craftsmanship of Japan and Germany and a balanced structureof large and small companies, also in the robot business. But it is rather global competition between companies,
their scientists and managers, which are dominating the development of robots. Nevertheless, culture plays animportant role as an invisible hand. Focusing the thoughts of ethical and cultural contexts in a more operational
context: Since a robot is based on a management decision and the product of technical development, it is an
important object to reﬂect ethically the relationship between ‘human and its body’ versus ‘machine and its
body’ in an ethical context. “How far and how much will human beings be mechanized? And will this be
acceptable?” “How far and how much will a machine be humanized? And will this be acceptable?” 34 These fourquestions give a direction for both German and Japanese enterprise in their environment, where they may
orientate ethical guidance. To explain this, examples of robots made in Germany and Japan using company web
pages are introduced in the next step.
3. Robot Manufacturers Websites – Business Reality in Global Competition
To make the research comparable, only web pages of German and Japanese companies written in English
language are considered for this paper. In addition to company web pages, reference sites by other providers
referring to the selected companies may be used as evidence. Providing information in the English language is amanagement decision, indicating a focus on the global market.
When analyzing web pages, the perspectives view between ‘reality’ and ‘the web’ incur changes: Physically,
robots are three-dimensional. Pictures, however, show artifacts and humans only in two dimensions.
Furthermore, pictures show only the outside of robots as a snapshot. Using the example of a humanoid robot:
this robot is different from a doll because it moves based on software. Computational intelligence researchers in

29 HORNYAK, Timothy N.: “Loving the Machine. The Art and Science of Japanese Robots”, Tokyo 2006, p.56
30 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Astro Boy” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy, Sept 29, 2014)
31 The SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son has said Pepper is a result of his time spent watching the TV show ‘AstroBoy’, an animated 1960s series based on a character who couldn’t experience emotions. In: ICHINO, Rin; AMANO,
Takashi: “SoftBank to Sell Robot in U.S. Stores Within 12 Months” (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0902/softbank-to-sell-robot-in-u-s-stores-within-12-months.html, Sept 29, 2014)
32 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Astro Boy” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy, Sept 29, 2014)33 SCHODT, Frederik L.: “Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics and the Coming Robotopia”, Tokyo 1988,
p.76
34 SANKAI, Yoshiyuki: “Cybernetics and Roboethics”, in: KIMURA, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports.
Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011, p.4

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robotics are working to reproduce the models of human brain to trigger robot’s appropriated actions fromperceived information from environment and results of knowledge from cumulated past experiences registeredin the memory. It is these algorithms for operation, programming, safety and control of robots, which makes it
possible for humans and robots to interact and even cooperate with each other. 35
There are many producers of robots – and even more functions robots may fulﬁll. The function of a robot hasa crucial inﬂuence on design of the body of a robot. The relationship between ‘robot’ and ‘human body’ can beseen from two perspectives: one is a human being with its human body. The robot may interact with a humanbeing and its body. The other is a robot which has a body, within a larger sense, a human shape – or at least
parts of it such as head with an arm, a leg etc. The question, if a robot needs a body to be a robot will be
discussed in the last chapter.
The companies and institutions selected in this paper are randomly based on two criteria: (i) Large robot
manufacturers. These companies have an extensive know-know of robot-technology with focus on customers,
very often the industry. (ii) Robot makers with humanoid robots in their portfolios. The focus analyzes thevariety of robots in the context between ‘robot’ and ‘human body’ – not the robot market as a market research,so the picture of robot-makers must remain incomplete. The more realistic the human shape mirrors robots
designed, the less likely it is that these robots may have a market, at least not in the near future, since thetechnology to duplicate people in robots is still very limited and as such the ability of humanoid robots. As aresult, the research and development for these makers is usually funded by the taxpayer, whether the maker is a
private company or a public research facility. To round out the picture of robots, beyond private companies
public research institutions are included, if their products have the long-term potential for ﬁnding customers.
The order of companies based on their web pages web-information below follows the line: the morehumanoid the shape of the robot, the later the robot will be quoted.
3.1. German Companies
A. No relation ‘robot’ – ‘human body’ – DUERR
Beside the fact that the company is one of largest robot-manufacturers in Germany, the web pages do notrefer to any humanoid-robot relations. 36 The USB-Stick in a humanoid-robot design offered as a public-relations
instrument cannot be set in the context of company thought towards any relation between human and robot,
though unspoken the company may think of it. It is typical for a maker of industrial robots.

Duerr AG
Source of Photo: 37

B. Robots cooperate with humans - KUKA
The company produces robots acting together as synchronized robot-teams. The technology concept is basedon the intelligent networking of standard controllers. Each robot thus retains its own controller which

35 KASTANIENBAUM (ed):” ‘Kastanienbaum’ company web page” (http://www.kastanienbaum.com/news.html , Sept29, 2014)

36 DUERR (ed.): “’Duerr’ company web page” (http://www.durr.com/, Sept 29, 2014)
37 DUERR (ed.): “’Duerr’ company web page” (http://www.durr-collection.com/uploads/tx_rrshop/101029-001_01.jpg,
Sept 29, 2014)34

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japan

communicates with those of the other “team members”. In this way, robots can exchange all relevant data andsynchronize their motions with one another. The cooperating robots can furthermore form a team with ahuman.38 Though the robots produced by KUKA do not have a human shape, the invisible software running therobot has been programmed in a way that the robot can communicate with a human body without hurting him.
C. Robots with elements of human shape - ABB
YuMi (“You and Me”39) is a collaborative, dual arm solution with the ability to feel and see. The robot canwork cage-free. It is based on a dual arm concept. The company underlines the human – machine collaboration:“humans and robots sharing tasks side-by-side.” 40
The core communication to customers: the robot is “safe” when people are around. The robot has a camera ineach shoulder. It is about 50 cm high and has no legs. When the arms are folded, the robot has a humanlike
design; however, at all times humans may not confuse a real human and robot.

Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) AG(Swedish-German-Swiss Company)
Source of Photo: 41

D. Robots – in direct interaction with human body - METRA LABSSCITOS A5 shopping robots are in service in the “Toom Baumarkt” home store chain within Germany. The
robots know the locations of more than 60,000 products and can guide customers to any product placed in thestore. The integrated barcode reader can be used to get pricing information. This allows the stores’ employees
to concentrate on sales conversations with their customers. 42
The SCITOS G5 main application is research in the ﬁeld of human-robot-interaction. The mobile base can beenlarged and improved to a fully-pledged interactive robot. Therefore, modules like an omni-directional camera,a touch screen monitor etc., are available. Packed with this equipment, the customer can accomplish research
for and studies in detection, tracking or identiﬁcation of individuals and objects as well as develop andinvestigate techniques for an adaptive conversational control.
MetraLabs GmbH
Source of Photo
Left:43 (SCITOS A5)
Right Scitos Head:44

38 KUKA (ed.): “’KUKA’ company web page” (http://www.kuka-robotics.com/en/pressevents/productnews/NN_
050912_HumanAndRobots.htm?wbc_purpose=Basic, Sept 29, 2014)

39 The phonetic English pronunciation “me” is written is German as “mi”.
40 ABB (ed.): “ABB Unveils the Future of Human-Robot Collaboration”, Press Release from Sept 9, 2014, (http://new.
abb.com/docs/librariesprovider89/default-document-library/gp_rdualarmrobotyumi.pdf?sfvrsn=2, Sept 29, 2014)

41 ABB (ed.): “’ABB’ company web page” (http://new.abb.com/products/robotics/yumi, Sept 29, 2014)42 METRALABS (ed.): “’METRALABS’ company web page” (http://metralabs.com/index.php?option=com_
content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=87, Sep 29, 2014)43 METRALABS (ed.): “’METRALABS’ company web page” (http://metralabs.com/index.php?option=com_
content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=87, Sep 29, 2014) A ﬁlm about the robot in use is provided: (http://www.
e21xx.de/automation21xx/13582_st3_robotics/default.htm, Sept 29, 2014)
44 METRALABS (ed.): “’METRALABS’ company web page” (http://metralabs.com/index.php?option=com_

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E. Company which set the relation ‘robot’ – ‘human body’ as business ﬁeld - FESTO
Festo has a comprehensive approach in building robots, asking: How will humans and robots work together
in the future? On its webpage on “innovation and technology” 45 the company is posing questions on the relation
between human and robots and discussing robot-related topics such as “Robot learns to see”:46. One of the
projects by FESTO is a robot-kangaroo. The kangaroo is based on interdisciplinary company research
including the relation between robot and human.
Festo AG & Co. KG
Source of Photo
Right : 47
Left: 48

F. Digression: humanoid robots for the household: ‘Karlsruhe Institute of Technology‘ and‘German Aerospace CenterIn the future humanoid robots are envisioned in household applications as well as in other contexts such as
the space environment. The capability to carry out complex manipulation tasks is a key issue.
The ‘Karlsruhe Institute of Technology‘ developed the Armar 3, a completely independent acting humanoid
robot for the household. It can learn by itself and work in any kitchen doing home helpers work. 49
The ‘German Aerospace Center’ (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) utilizes its humanoid robot
Rollin’ Justin as a research platform for autonomous dexterous mobile manipulation in human environments.
The compliant controlled light weight arms and the two four-ﬁngered hands of the robot make it an ideal
experimental platform for these research issues. The mobile platform allows the long range autonomous
operation of the system. Motion sensing sensors and stereo cameras allow the 3D reconstruction of theenvironment of the robot. Unstructured, variable and dynamic environments require a robot to act based on thegiven situation without human intervention. On the other hand, cooperating with a human is sometimes the
only way to solve a certain task. 50
Karlsruhe Institute ofTechnology:

German Aerospace Center:
Rollin’ Justin

Armar 3

Source of Photo: 52

Source of Photo: 51

content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=75, Sept 29, 2014)

45 FESTO (ed.): “’FESTO’ company web page” (http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/12925.htm, Sept 29, 2014)
46 FESTO (ed.): „Robots Learn to See“, PR-paper from June 27, 2014 (http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/13976.htm,
Sept 29, 2014)

47 FESTO (ed.): “’FESTO’ company web page” ( http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/index.htm, Sept 29, 2014)
48 FESTO (ed.): “’FESTO’ company web page” (http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/13704.htm, Sept 29, 2014)49 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (ed.): “Armar Family” (http://his.anthropomatik.kit.edu/english/241.php, Sept 29,2104)

50 German Aerospace Center (ed.): “Rollin’ Justin“ (http://www.dlr.de/rmc/rm/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-5471/, Sept29, 2014)

51 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Amar 3” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armar_3#mediaviewer/File:KIT_Armar_08.jpg, Sept 29,
2014)

52 German Aerospace Center (ed.): “Rollin’ Justin“ (http://www.dlr.de/rmc/rm/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-5471/, Sept
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Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japan

3.2. Japanese Companies
A. Companies with no websites relation ‘robot’ – ‘human body’
Many large, global operating robot-manufacturers do not show any web pages with humanoid robots. Theirbusiness is industrial robots, which represents the large majority of the market. Major makers are among
others: Fanuc, Hirata, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Nihon Densan Sankyo and Denso.
B. Robots with elements of human shape – YASKAWA ELECTRIC and EPSON
The dual arm robot can carry out varying tasks almost autonomously using its arm geometry based onhuman physiology and wide-ranging integral sensors such as cameras, force sensors and acceleration meters. 53
The cameras are ﬁxed in a stylized head. The robot can interact with a human. 54

Yaskawa Electric(Trademark: Motoman)
Source of Photo: 55

Epson
Source of Photo: 56

C. Robots which have additional human displays - PANASONIC
Panasonic works on robots in hospitals. The ‘Hospi-R’ robot delivers medicines to patients in hospitals. The
robot itself has no human shape; however, on a screen a stylized head appears with a smile. Stumps are ﬁxed on
both sides of the robot arm. The company says that it frees nurses to do more important work.

Panasonic‘Hospi-R’
Source of Photo: 57

D. Robots with Humanoid shape – HITACHI, TOYOTA and HONDA
Hitachi: The robot EMIEW2 was developed as part of Hitachi’s efforts to create a service robot with diverse
communication functions that could safely coexist with humans while conducting necessary services. To ensureagility and safety in an ofﬁce environment, EMIEW2 was designed to a compact height of 80 cm and a portable
29, 2014)

53 EPSON (ed.) “’EPSON’ company web page” (http://www.epson.de/de/en/viewcon/corporatesite/cms/index/11075/,
Sept 29, 2014)

54 YASKAWA (ed.) “’YASKAWA’ company web page” (http://www.yaskawa.co.jp/en/vision/robotics/01.html, Sept 29,
2014)

55 KAISER, Arvid: „Japan will Olympische Spiele fuer Roboter“, in ‚Manager Magazin‘ of July 24, 2014 (http://www.
manager-magazin.de/fotostrecke/roboter-fuer-olympia-wie-japan-in-den-wettbewerb-der-zukunft-geht-fotostrecke117318-13.html, Sept 29, 2104)
56 EPSON (ed.) “’EPSON’ company web page” (https://neon.epson-europe.com/ﬁles/pressimages/D/Doppelarm_6_mid.
jpg, Sept 29, 2014)57 FALCONER, Jason: “HOSPI-R drug delivery robot frees nurses to do more important work” in: GIZMAG Magazine,
October 28, 2013, (http://www.gizmag.com/panasonic-hospi-r-delivery-robot/29565/, Sept 29, 2014)37

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weight of 14kg. Further, to enable harmonious interaction while working with people, EMIEW2 is able to travelat the same speed as humans. 58
Honda: The company says about its robot, ASIMO, that it is advanced to an ‘autonomous machine’ with thedecision-making capability to determine its behavior in concert with its surroundings such as movements ofpeople. At the beginning of the development process, the following three factors were identiﬁed as necessary fora humanoid robot to perform as an autonomous machine which in practical term coexists with people: 59 (i)high-level postural balancing capability which enables the robot to maintain its posture by extending its leg in
an instant, (ii) external recognition capability which enables the robot to integrate information, such as
movements of surrounding people, from multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place, (iii)the capability to generate autonomous behavior which enables the robot to make predictions from gathered
information and autonomously determine its next behavior without being controlled by an operator.
Toyota: The company postulates that humanoids are friendly people, is a partner robot of bipedal walking
with adaptation to the living environment.
Toyota says that its robot ‘Robina’ can help providing medical and nursing care or perform housework.
‘Robina’ is able to think and move for itself, carry and use objects and even converse with people. Toyota hopes,that ‘Robina’ will become a trusted partner, assisting doctors and nurses and looking after patients and theelderly wherever medical and nursing care are provided. 60

Hitachi
EMIEW2
Source of
Photo: 61

Honda
ASIMO
Source of
Photo: 62

Toyota‘Robina’
Source of
Photo: 63

E. Robots who have high ability to communicate with people: Kirobo-Consortium, SOFTBANKA consortium of private companies and public research institutes developed Kirobo, or ‘Kibo’, the Japanesehumanoid robot who is modeled after Astro Boy. 64 The consortium deﬁned its mission for Kibo: The robot
should “help solving the problems brought about by a society that has become more individualized and lesscommunicative. Nowadays, more and more people are living alone. It is not just the elderly – with today’s
challenging lifestyles, its people of all ages. With a new style of robot-interface, perhaps a way to solve this58 (http://www.hitachi.com/rd/portal/research/robotics/emiew2_01.html, Sept 29.2014) . Its obstacle evasion technology
Developed as part of a joint research project between Tsukuba University and Hitachi, Ltd. This technology
incorporates the results of cooperative research conducted by Professor Takashi TSUBOUCHI, Shinichi YUTA
(Director of Tsukuba Industrial Liaison and Cooperative Research Center), and Hitachi, Ltd., A ﬁlm can been seen:(http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/techtrends/20140828.html, Sept 29, 2014)
59 HONDA (ed.): “’HONDA’ company web page” (http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/technology/2011/index.html, Sept 29,
2014)
60 TOYOTA (ed.): “’TOYOTA’ company web page” (http://www.toyota-global.com/innovation/partner_robot/family_2.
html#h201, Sept 29, 2014)
61 HITACHI (ed.): “’HITACHI’ company web page” (http://www.hitachi.com/rd/portal/research/robotics/emiew2_01.
html, Sept 29, 2014)
62 HONDA (ed.): “without title”, News Release of Nov. 8, 2011 ( http://world.honda.com/news/2011/c111108All-newASIMO/photo/pages/14.html, Sept 29, 2014)
63 TOYOTA (ed.): “’TOYOTA’ company web page” (http://www.toyota-global.com/innovation/partner_robot/family_2.
html#h201, Sept 29, 2014)
64 Kirobo was developed by a collaborative effort between Dentsu, University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced
Science and Technology, Robo Garage, Toyota, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

38

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japanproblem could be found. This is the goal we have in mind for this project.” 65 To fulﬁll this task, communication
software is one of the core-elements of Kibo. In 2014, a Kibo was brought on the international space station toentertain astronauts in space. 66
Softbank will sell a robot to individual consumers: robot ‘Pepper’ will go in sale in Japan in 2015. 67 Pepper
is a humanoid robot that takes his surroundings into consideration to react pro-actively using proprietaryalgorithms. The robot is equipped with capabilities that enables communication with people, including gestureand voice recognition technology, and emotion recognition that analyzes expressions and voice tones. In
addition, Pepper can make jokes, dance and amuse people thanks to a wide variety of entertainment
capabilities. With these technologies, people can communicate with Pepper in a natural way. 68
KIROBO
Source of
Photo
Left: 69
Right: 70

SOFTBANK‘Pepper’Source of
Photo: 71

G. Real model robots: ‘University of Osaka’ and ‘National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology’ (AIST)The ‘Geminoid-F’ developed at the University of Osaka is a very humanoid robot – the picture shows the“original” human being and robot styled after the lady on the right side. - AIST developed HRP-4C “Miim”. The
robot can move like a human, utilizing 30 body motors and another eight dedicated to facial expressions such as
happiness, anger and surprise. Miim can sing and respond to speech using speech recognition software, and iscapable of recognizing ambient sounds. 72

UNIVERSITY OF OSAKA‘Geminoid-F’
Source of Photo: 73

National Institute ofAdvanced Industrial Scienceand Technology
HRP-4C “Miim”
Source of Photo: 74

65 KIBO Robot Project (ed.): “without title” (http://kibo-robo.jp/en/project/mission.html, Sept 29, 2014)
66 BURTON, Bonnie: Japan’s ISS Kirobo robot is lonely in space, in CNET-Magazine of Sept 2, 2014 (http://www.cnet.
com/news/japans-iss-kirobo-robot-is-lonely-in-space/, Sept 29, 2014). A ﬁlm about Kirobo in space is provided in
youtube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqShesZ3v-g, Sept 29, 2014)
67 The price of the robot will be 198.000 Yen. See: ICHINO, Rin; AMANO, Takashi: “SoftBank to Sell Robot in U.S.
Stores Within 12 Months” (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-02/softbank-to-sell-robot-in-u-s-stores-within12-months.html, Sept 29, 2014). “Aldebaran” is a French company ? the majority of shares are held by Softbank.
68 ALDEBARAN (ed.): “’Aldebaran’ company web page” (http://www.aldebaran.com/ja/softbank-mobile-andaldebaran-unveil-pepper, Sept 29,2014)
69 KAISER, Arvid: „Japan will Olympische Spiele fuer Roboter“, in ‚Manager Magazin‘ of July 24, 2014 (http://www.
manager-magazin.de/fotostrecke/roboter-fuer-olympia-wie-japan-in-den-wettbewerb-der-zukunft-geht-fotostrecke117318-3.html, Sept 29,2014)
70 KIBO Robot Project (ed.): “without title” (http://kibo-robo.jp/en/report, Sept 29, 2014)
71 KAISER, Arvid: „Japan will Olympische Spiele fuer Roboter“, in ‚Manager Magazin‘ of July 24, 2014 (http://www.
manager-magazin.de/fotostrecke/roboter-fuer-olympia-wie-japan-in-den-wettbewerb-der-zukunft-geht-fotostrecke117318-2.html, Sept 29, 2014)
72 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “HRP-4C” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HRP-4C, Sept 29, 2014)
73 KAISER, Arvid: „Japan will Olympische Spiele fuer Roboter“, in ‚Manager Magazin‘ of July 24, 2014 (http://www.
manager-magazin.de/fotostrecke/roboter-fuer-olympia-wie-japan-in-den-wettbewerb-der-zukunft-geht-fotostrecke-

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3.3. Similarities and Differences in Japanese and German Robot Manufacturers
Japanese and German makers are intensively involved in robot manufacturing and a broad range of robots
are developed and produced in both countries.
However, there are cultural differences. In Japan, politicians, including the Prime Minister himself, play animportant stimulus role. In contrary, it is unimaginable that a German Chancellor would suggest during a wellprepared press-conference a (international) Robot Olympics while setting it in the context for boosting aparticular, still small, national industry. There are many other competing technologies at a seed stage with thechance to become a break-through technology. Chris FIELD points out, “the fact that the Japanese government
has chosen to invest a huge amount of money in robotics over easing immigration restrictions, or making
working conditions less hostile to women and mothers, says as much about the ’reactionary postmodernism’ ofcontemporary Japanese politicians, as it does about the Japanese afﬁnity with robots.” 75 Furthermore, a positive
return in investment of the public investment in robots – beyond industrial robots – at this early stage is rather
uncertain. It is a government market intervention with the risk of market distortion. However, for Japanesemanagement this government policy is the prevailing circumstance for decision-making.
Not an ethical but a crucial management aspect: Japanese companies mainly follow in their robot researchand development a philosophy based on what is called “kaizen”. Its formula for success is based on traditional
know-how and continuous improvement in small steps embedded in group work. Its focus is the human being.
On an operational level, Japanese companies tend mainly to use their domestic market at an early stage oftechnology life and high penetration rate during the growth phase of diffusion. As such, Japanese robot
development –except when subsidized by the treasury– is focused on consumer applications and on larger, lowrisk markets such as automobile and electrical appliance manufacturing. Based on government stimuli,
Japanese makers are much more willing to engage in humanoid robots than their German counterparts.
However, these robots cannot yet be sold, but in best case are used to polish the company image. Example: USPresident Barak Obama played soccer with the ASIMO-robot during an ofﬁcial visit to Japan.76 The probability
to use the gained know-how for future projects is uncertain – or could in part have gained as well by investingin other, related technologies.
German companies mainly follow in their robot research and development a philosophy based on what iscalled “innovation”. Its formula for success is based on new invention and improvement in big steps based on
individual ideas. Its focus is the technology. The German government supports within the legal framework of
the EU-Commission research institutions such as public large-scale research-institutions and universities.
Research money for private companies is only available within strictly deﬁned limitations. Products developedwith public money usually have as seed-technology only long-term opportunities for a market-entry.
What Japanese and German management has in common is that companies in both countries concentrate on
technical matters of the hard- and software of their robots. Engineers and computer scientists dominate
development. However, some companies with a long-term vision based on an excellent management include
ethical thoughts in their R&D out of a self-enlightened interest.

117318-8.html, Sept 29,2014) A ﬁlm about ‘Geminoid-F’ is provided in youtube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
MaTfzYDZG8c, Sept 29, 2014)74 AIST (ed.): “’AIST’ ofﬁcial web page” (http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_j/press_release/pr2009/pr20090316/pr20090316.
html, Sept 29, 2014)
75 FIELD, Chris: “Creative Perspectives on Future Human-Robot-Relations in Japan”, Sidney 2010, p.28 (https://dl.
dropboxusercontent.com/u/6132601/CFL001/Exegesis.pdf, Sept 29, 2014)
76 Associated Press (ed.): “Raw: Obama Plays Soccer With Japanese Robot”, ﬁlm provided in “you tube” (https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=ag2vk6coBpI, Sept 29, 2014)40

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japan

4. Robots and Human Body - Merging Academic Approaches and Business Reality
Setting the production of robots by companies in an ethical context, a decision should undergo a two-stepprocess: (i) an analysis if the robot production can be ethically justiﬁed from a management point of view – andif so, (ii) does the robot fulﬁll the ethical criteria towards society, including a balanced relationship between‘robot’ and ‘human body’.
The justiﬁcation for robot production must lie outside the company: it must be in society. Creating a customer
is the core of any business and as such the customer decides what the business is. Management should not ask
intrinsic: ‘Is it right what we do?’ but rather research: ‘Is that, what we do, what society wants and what thecustomer pays to us?’ The test of any management is not the maximization of proﬁt, but the achievement of
sufﬁcient proﬁt to cover at least the risks and its potential losses of every company activity. 77 In a marketorientated economy, companies are responsible for their impacts. Even minor impacts are likely to result inserious damage to business. The job of the management is to realistically imagine and identify impacts.
This is challenging: Of the SONY-made entertainment robot AIBO 150.000 units have been sold, though,production and further research was halted in 2006. 78 Setting the ethical relationship between ‘robot’ and‘human body’ in context within a technology assessment, there is the risk that the result may lead to theencouragement of the wrong technologies and the discouragement of the technologies society needs at aparticular time and which customers are prepared to pay for. Obviously, Japanese society is keen on new robots,
though, and the previously introduced robot PEPPER sold by SOFTBANK will be the next large-scale test.
The long-term future impacts of robots are beyond anybody’s imagination. To avoid prophecy, operating
robots, including the humanoid robots, which are already advanced enough to be judged and to be evaluated,have to be observed. That has to go far beyond technological assessments: crucial as well are non-technologicalimpacts, such as social innovations and developments. They are just as hard to predict, to evaluate and tomeasure. This justiﬁes, demands, enterprise working out a clear position regarding roboethics 79. The balanced
relationship between ‘robot’ and ‘human body’ as an ethic condition is for robot-makers an important, often
underestimated or even ignored management task. 80 These criteria are needed regardless of whichever
understanding the company holds of what robots are: (i) nothing as machines, (ii) as entities with ethic
dimensions or (iii) as moral agents. It is rather the customers who decide what robots are, and customers’ ideas
are diverse.
One topic of roboethics needs at this stage deeper debate. It is the prediction: “what robots characterize is‘autonomy’”. Obviously, what makes a robot in particular different from an automat is its ‘autonomy’. But whatis ‘autonomy’? Makoto NAKADA analyzed systems characterized by their creators as ‘autonomous’. The
results were for example: “The ability to produce the values of measurements supported by a set of devices anda calculation method” or “capacity of generating new and modulated …walking … patterns based on a certain
set of artiﬁcial neurons.” 81 NAKADA concludes that robots are hybrid-entities of independency anddependency; this means that the notion of robot ‘autonomy’ itself is a hybrid concept involving independency
77 DRUCKER, Peter: Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, New York 1993, p.73
78 WIKIPEDIA (ed.): “Aibo” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIBO, Sept 29, 2014)
79 Roboethics is a short expression for ethics of robotics. Very likely the expression was used ﬁrst time by Gianmarco
Veruggio, University of Genoa. 2004 the ﬁrst symposium on roboethics was held in Italy.

80 BARTFAI, Aniko: “High-Tech Assistive Devices for the Disabled and Elderly: Ethical Issues and Clinical Experiencesin Use and Assessment”, in: KIMURA, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports. Special Issue on Roboethics,
Tsukuba 2011, p.38
81 NAKADA, Makoto: “Ethical and Critical Analysis of the Meaning of Autonomy of Robot Technology in the Westand Japan”, in: KIMURA, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports. Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011,
p.76–77

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and dependency. 82 This is an important hint for management how to set their robots into a frame of ethic
values.
A management policy which is not embedded in profound theory and evident nature is without orientation.
Keeping the hybrid nature of robots regarding ‘autonomy’ in mind, the list of criteria for roboethics worked out
by Rafael CAPURRO may give management direction: (i) human dignity and human rights, (ii) equality, (iii)
justice and equity, (iv) beneﬁt and harm, (v) respect for cultural diversity and pluralism, (vi) non-discriminationand non-stigmatization, (vii) autonomy and individual responsibility, (viii) informed consent, (ix) privacy, (x)conﬁdentiality, (xi) solidarity and cooperation, (xii) social responsibility, (xiii) sharing of beneﬁts, (xiv)
responsibility towards the biosphere. 83 These broad, comprehensive criteria may be used as a checklist bycompanies to approach sensitivities towards their business-activities with particular reference to their robotrelated products and services. But such a checklist may only be one among other tools to work out aknowledgeable company-mission deﬁning ethical relationship between ‘robot’ and ‘human body’ in particularand roboethics in general. Every company must ﬁnd its own mission.
What will be the outlook for roboethics? In which direction does visionary management have to think?
Robots themselves and human beings will become part of a system, where no single robot is considered tothink, and nor is any single person. In this sense, the ‘autonomy’ of robots, based on presuppositions of
independent entities, no longer has meaning.
An example for this development is a ‘network-robot-system’. Still, such systems will have at least one
physical robot which incorporates hardware and software capabilities, so the embodiment of robots will remain.
And this physical robot must have autonomous capacities. But there are signiﬁcant changes vis-à-vis a“traditional” robot: The robot, environment sensors and humans must communicate and cooperate through a
network. Besides the sensors of the robots, the environment must include other sensors, such as vision cameras
and laser range ﬁnders, and other actuators, such as speakers. And last but not least: The system must perform
a human-robot related activity. 84 Within such systems, the necessity of (hybrid) ‘autonomy’ for robots isdecreasing, because systems themselves have their own environment sensors, ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’. The developmentof highly organized and networked systems might herald the end of the necessity of discussions ‘regarding theautonomy of robots’, and perhaps the end of the necessity of concepts or the presence of robots themselves,because robots without ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ can no longer be considered robots. However, at the same time, anenvironment with sensors but without bodies also cannot be considered being a robot. 85
As an example for this post-robot age, the eMotionSpheres may serve, developed by FESTO: several ﬂying
objects can move in a coordinated manner and within a deﬁned space in collision-free motion of autonomous
systems. Ten cameras installed in the room record the spheres via their active infrared markers and pass on theposition data to a central master computer. The actions calculated from this process are sent back to thespheres, which then implement them locally. The intelligent networking system creates as guidance andmonitoring system, which could be used in the networked factory of the future. 86 The system is not any more arobot.
82 NAKADA, Makoto: “Ethical and Critical Analysis of the Meaning of Autonomy of Robot Technology in the Westand Japan”, in: KIMURA, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports. Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011, p.74

83 CAPURRO, Rafael: “The Quest for Roboethics: A Survey”, in: KIMURA, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports.
Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011, p.43

84 NAKADA, Makoto: “Ethical and Critical Analysis of the Meaning of Autonomy of Robot Technology in the Westand Japan”, in: Kimura, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports. Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011, p.78

85 NAKADA, Makoto: “Ethical and Critical Analysis of the Meaning of Autonomy of Robot Technology in the Westand Japan”, in: Kimura, Takeshi et al.: Cybernics Technical Reports. Special Issue on Roboethics, Tsukuba 2011, p.78

86 FESTO (ed.): “eMotionSpheres. Collision-free motion of autonomous systems in an area”, Esslingen 2014, (http://
www.festo.com/net/SupportPortal/Files/333990/Festo_eMotionSpheres_en.pdf, Sept 29, 2014)42

Martin POHL, A Comparison of Websites by Robot Manufacturers in Germany and Japan

Festo AG & Co. KG
Source of Photo: 87

The end of the information age will coincide with the beginning of the robot age. Information technology androbotics will gradually fuse so that people will likely only notice when robot technology is already in use invarious locations. 88 But as the example eMotionSpheres shows, it can be predicted already now that also therobot age will come to an end and open a new, post-robot age with a new relationship between ‘whatever will
follow’ and ‘human body’. It will once more be an obligation of science to work out the theoretical framework
which may be called “post-roboethics”, so that management will be able to act accordingly towards society.
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University of Tsukuba

Volume 7 / March 2015

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