Disrupting Healthcare and Educational Services: The First Human-Robot Multimodal-Companionship in 7 Tokku Zones in Wales and Malaysia

The “Tokku Zone” is widely recognized in academia as Japan’s exclusive area for empirical research and development of robots. In 2003, the first such special areas were established in Japan’s cities of Fukuoka and Kitakyushu. This special zone is not only for the development of robot technology, but more deeply, it is conceived as a bridge between robots and society, specifically assessing the feasibility of robot operation and interaction in the public environment. In this environment, information exchange and interaction between humans and robots are legally authorized and supported. The core goal of this study is to conduct in-depth research and interpretation of the companionship behavior patterns between humans and robots through humanoid service robots with companion functions deployed in the “Tokku Zone” in the healthcare and education industries. This research is based on an observational case study of humanoid service robots deployed to different hospitals (Wales Cardiff and Malaysia: ALTY hospital) and universities (Cardiff Metropolitan University and Universities in Malaysia) in Healthcare Robots as a Service (HRaaS) projects at “Tokku Zone” this research set up to proposes a policy framework to help implement implementation in the healthcare and education industries Companionship between humans and robots.