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By Keri Welham
Robotics experts in New Zealand and Korea are joining forces to develop machines that can assist the elderly.
Bruce MacDonald, senior robotics lecturer at Auckland University. (Image: Nigel Marple)
The New Zealand side is represented by Bruce MacDonald, a senior robotics lecturer at the University of Auckland.
He also heads the university’s new Centre for Healthcare Robotics, a joint collaboration with the Intelligent Robot Division of Korea’s Electronic and Telecommunications Research Institute.
MacDonald says building the relationships required to enter a joint venture with his Korean counterparts was complex and time-consuming.
But his joint-venture partners are now talking about introducing him to their partners in Italy.
For five years or so, the Koreans have been developing robots capable of helping with menial tasks.
They have trialled more than 800 robots in homes, restaurants, city halls and rest-homes.
The Koreans identified aged care as a particularly ripe export market in an ageing world but they needed help to ‘Westernise’ their robots.
Without a rest-home culture of their own, they also needed access to aged care facilities that New Zealand offers.
Starting with an American research robot called Charles, MacDonald’s multi-disciplinary team will be developing elderly care robots and testing prototypes in New Zealand rest homes.
New Zealand’s Foundation for Research Science and Technology has pledged $1.8 million over three years for the project from its International Investment Opportunities fund.
The Korean government will provide $3.7 million.
From the start, MacDonald had known that if he wanted to navigate the Korean business world he needed a lot more than his technical brilliance.
So he consulted books on Korean society and sought advice from New Zealand Government experts in trade, culture and research.
He wanted to ensure his interactions with potential joint-venture partners would be culturally pain-free.
The best advice he got: fill other people’s glasses when drinking socially but never fill your own.
This article originally appeared as part of ‘Cornering Korea’, by Keri Welham, in Bright magazine on September / October 2008. Issue 30.
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