Books Kinokuniya welcomed two distinguished Robotech researchers — visiting Professor Minoru Asada from Osaka University, Japan and Dr. Zhou Changjiu, Centre Director of the Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Control Centre, Singapore Polytechnic — on the afternoon of Sunday, 26th September 2010 for an enlightening talk cum robot demonstration. The two researchers specially took time off their busy schedule for this special presentation, which was aimed at bringing robot technology out of the laboratory and showcasing it to the general audience.

Professor Asada brought along his latest research project, the M3-Neony baby robot, which was carried out in partnership with the Japan Science and Technology Agency. His team of helpers demonstrated the agility of the M3-Neony by letting it crawl on all fours, roll on the floor and walk – all done independently and very much like a human baby. Dr. Zhou and his team of helpers from the Singapore Polytechnic upped the ante by showcasing a series of their research projects — from a walking robot that stands at about one-metre in height, to several dancing robots that could execute some difficult street dance moves. All these rarely seen robot demonstrations drew a lot of oohs and ahhs from the crowd of both adults and children alike that had gathered in no time as the robots were being put out on display.

The lively robot demonstrations were intertwined with talk by the two researchers in fluent English that covered topics such as robot technology in Japan and Singapore, education on robot technology, the outlook on robot technology in the near and distant futures, etc., which were made very palatable for the afternoon's mostly non-academic audience by the seasoned speakers.

At the end of the afternoon's event, we can be certain that our customers were all greatly enthused by the robot demonstrations as seen from the fact that many of them were happily taking snapshots and videos of the robots throughout the event. The two researchers were similarly encouraged by the turnout, response and enthusiasm of the audience, which may spur them on in their pursuit of further developments in their field of research.