I, Robot Actor

The BBC reported recently that robot actors appeared in a play at Osaka University in Japan, thus making it the first Japanese robot-human theatre production.

The play is called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker), and is written by Oriza Hirata.

The Wakamaru robots that perform in the play were manufactured by Mitsubushi, but the software that programmed the robots to to speak lines with the human actors and move around the stage was developed at the university.

It focuses on a young couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.

In the play, the robot complains that it has been forced into boring and demeaning jobs and enters into a discussion with the humans about its role in their lives.

So far, the play is only 20 minutes long but it is hoped to become a full-length production by 2010.