Hitachi's Ropits Robot Review

Hitachi's Ropits mobility robot drives itself

The Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System is a single-person autonomous vehicle meant to travel on sidewalks. Just punch in your destination and it takes you there.

Hitachi today unveiled a robot vehicle that can pick up and drop off passengers autonomously. Take that, all you old-fashioned driver-dependent personal mobility devices.

The tiny, single-seat Ropits (Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System) is meant to travel on sidewalks, or even be used indoors for getting in and out of elevators.

It's equipped with GPS to find its way and relies on cameras and 2D and 3D laser distance sensors to avoid obstacles (sometimes also known as pedestrians) and slow down in narrow spaces. Gyro sensors help it stay upright on uneven surfaces.

Passengers climb into Ropits through a front hatch and specify their destination via a touch-screen tablet interface. Ropits takes it from there. In case of emergencies, riders can control the vehicle with a joystick located in the cockpit.

Hitachi demonstrated Ropits in the Japanese city of Tsukuba and says it's aimed at the elderly and those who have difficulty walking. It's also easy to imagine it taking off as a next-generation Segway for the urban crowd, though there's no word yet on when you might be dodging the 450-pound device on a sidewalk near you.

Hitachi says additional trials of Ropits will be held in Tsukuba (considered a high-tech "science city") to improve the device's ability to serve as an autonomous transporter of people and goods. The company plans to further detail the technology at the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics in May.

Powered by a lithium ion battery, the little vehicle can travel at speeds of 3.7 mph and reportedly reach its destination with error margins of up to 3 feet. Why am I suddenly imagining people sitting on porches in Japan yelling, "Hey, Ropits, get off my lawn"?

Hitachi Ropits Self-Driving Vehicle

Hitachi has revealed a tiny single-seat vehicle called Ropits; that’s Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System. Ropit is a robot vehicle that can pick up and drop off passengers independently. Just punch in the destination and it will take you there. The vehicle is meant to travel on sidewalks and Hitachi had demonstrated its capability in the city of Tsukuba today. There will be more tests to come.

Ropit finds its way using GPS and relies on cameras and 2D + 3D laser distance sensors to avoid pedestrians and other obstacles. It will also slow down in narrow spaces and is equipped with gyro sensors to maintain its upright position on uneven surfaces.

Passengers board the Ropit by climbing in through the front hatch. The passenger will then program the destination via a touch-screen tablet interface and Ropit will drive there on its own. Should there be emergencies, passenger can take manual control of the Ropit using the joystick located in the cockpit.

Ropit is aimed at the elderly and people with walking impairment  Powered by a lithium ion battery, it can travel at speeds of 3.7 mph and reportedly reach its destination with error margins of up to 3 feet.

Hitachi ROPITS transport robot takes you where you choose on your tablet

Those who need assisted transport have few options for getting around city sidewalks beyond a wheelchair. Hitachi thinks its ROPITS (Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System) could provide a slicker approach -- and make those of us on foot rather jealous, quite frankly. Steering the single-seater is just a matter of picking a destination on a smartphone or a tablet and letting the pathfinding system figure out the rest. The robot can even come to the owner, if that's too much of a trek. ROPITS won't be much of a risk to pedestrians at a 3.7MPH traveling speed, but it should be a good citizen with both a stereo camera and laser rangefinders to avoid collisions and gauge its position better than GPS alone. If Hitachi's ongoing testing proves the viability of the concept, we may never have to worry about how we'll get around the neighborhood.