Jennifer Ellen Robertson
Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1382)
FO-50039-07
Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan
Research Programs
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[Grant products]
Totals:
$24,000 (approved)
$24,000 (awarded)
Grant period:
5/1/2008 – 11/30/2008
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Robotics, Technology, and the Japanese Family
The emerging field of humanoid robotics is nowhere more actively pursued than in Japan. Japan accounts for nearly 52% of the world’s share of operational robots and leads the postindustrial world in the development of humanoid robots designed specifically to enhance and augment human society. The five-year Humanoid Robotics Project was launched in 1998 with the mandate to develop a robot that could use human tools and work in human environments, including the domestic household. Innovations in robot technology are linked not only to new markets in information technology, but also to new conceptualizations about human life, the structure and formation of Japanese families and kinship systems, and the meaning of citizenship.
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