RIKEN

RIKEN (the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) is Japan's largest natural-science research institute, established in 1917 and headquartered in Wako, Saitama Prefecture. It is a non-commercial public research organization spanning physics, chemistry, biology, genomics, medical science, computational science, and engineering rather than manufacturing or selling products commercially.

RIKEN has produced a sustained line of care robots through its RIKEN-SRK Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research in Nagoya, developed with Sumitomo Riko Company: RIBA, announced in 2009; RIBA-II, a 230-kilogram successor introduced in 2011; and ROBEAR, unveiled in February 2015. ROBEAR weighs 140 kilograms and uses torque sensors together with Smart Rubber capacitance-type tactile sensors and low-gear-ratio, backdrivable actuators to lift patients between a bed and a wheelchair and assist people who can stand but need support, applying force gently enough to avoid injury during transfers.

In April 2019, RIKEN launched the Guardian Robot Project, directed by Michihiko Minoh and based at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kyoto's Kansai Science City, to combine brain science, cognitive science, psychology, and artificial intelligence in robots that can recognize a person's state and environment and provide assistance without explicit instructions.