  Top Greetings from the Director
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Foundation background Waseda University has
a long history in robotics research. It
has begun with the development of prostheses and extends to more than thirty
years.
We have had the first great success in developing WABOT-1, which is the world first biped walking humanoid robot in 1973. Afterwards we have researched continuously about different kinds of robots and were evaluated very high from the society. The Gifu Prefecture has on the other hand constructed an R&D site named Techno Plaza in Kakamigahara since 1998. It was expected to become a base of coalescence of IT research and the local handicraft. Thereby Gifu has aimed at sophistication and informatization of local industry and farther more to create a new industry. Kakamigahara and her suburb is also a metal-processing industrial region. This technological accumulation leads to an expectation that the robotics industry can suit as a next economical impact for the region. That is why the research institutes of Gifu have proceeded also in the robotics field eagerly. In accordance with the requisition from the Gifu Prefecture, the School of Science and Engineering at the Waseda University assembled a committee to figure out a concept of the WABOT-HOUSE and its implementation plan. On the 16th of November 2001 the Gifu Prefecture and the Waseda University has come to a contract, and after the contract the WABOT-HOUSE Laboratory was established on the 1st of December in the same year. A research block of the WABOT-HOUSE Laboratory was soon constructed in the Techno Plaza. Many researchers station there on a full-time basis, and work for a better communication among local enterprises, residents of the prefecture, and the Waseda University. The Laboratory is going to launch a new robotics industry in Gifu Prefecture, using past fruits of the Waseda University and supported by the technological accumulation of the region.@ „ hWABOTh is the abbreviation of gWaseda Roboth, and was named by the late Professor Ichiro KATO. Professor Kato was the core researcher of the gWABOT-1h which is developed in the year of 1973. He is widely regarded as the gFather of Japanese Robotsh. @@ „The name gWABOT-HOUSEh was given by Professor Toshio OJIMA by the time of its establishment. He was the Dean of the School of Science and Engineering at that time. The name should represent the main concept of this project, which will realize to invent a new social system and principle of@technical designs through the close interaction among humankind and different kinds of robots. |