Robodex 2003 Astro Boy Presentation - Video Exist? Also, Robodex status...

[sgupta]

Hey all, So I'm reading Mr. Shodt's quite excellent and entertaining The Astro Boy Essays, and there's quite an interesting section about Robodex, a Japanese robotics show focusing on personal robots and dreams of the future of robotics instead of industrial robots (which most shows seemed to focus on in the past).

As can be seen on this excellent blog post (with pictures), http://astroboyworld.blogspot.com/2008/04/robodex-2003.html, there was quite an exibit of a life-size Astro lying on a table, surrounded by Mitsubishi industrial robots that would, every half hour, "work" on Atom in the "Atom Dream Factory" (smoke and movement and such). The only brief video I've found (first few seconds; just the industrial bots moving around Atom) of this is here: http://tokyodv.com/news/Robodex2003Montage.html

Apparently there was also a stage show where Macoto, son of Osamu Tezuka, "woke" Astro up, and he opened his eyes, sat up, and shook his hand (just simple animatronics, but still amazing to watch I'm sure). It's hard to believe nobody filmed this, but I can't seem to find much about it at all. The best resource is definitely that photo blog link. Does video exist anywhere?

Also, I notice sadly that after 2003 (and there were some Robodex's prior...2002 and possibly a few years before that as well), there doesn't seem to be much about any "new" Robodex events. Was this show discontinued for some reason (or possibly renamed?)? It looks so amazing from the videos of all the cool robots there...it's really sad if they no longer host it!

[Dragonrider1227]

Is it possible that for some reason or another, they didn't want it filmed? Or it has and none of it has just leaked in America yet?
Either way, that's still some epic footage there. Thanks for sharing

[Big Astro Fan]

I want that netbook. lol. gimme gimme, gimme

[sgupta]

Possibly Dragonrider1227, I dunno. I find it curious there aren't more videos as I'm sure it'd be neat to watch. =)