Registration Opens for the Kiko Festival; Tokiwado's Team Aims for a Fourth Straight Year With a Robot in Its Care
Registration opened on the 13th for the Kiko Festival, an October event in Kyobashi where non-humanoid symbiotic robots race in pairs with human partners. Tokiwado, the perpetual-custody business previously reported, said it would field a robot in its care for a fourth consecutive year. As the robot legislative council's deliberations continue, the relationship of 'partner' is already being lived out on the track.
Registration opened on the 13th for the Kiko Festival, an October obstacle-race event. "Kiko Run," in which a non-humanoid symbiotic robot and a human partner race in pairs, is one of the ten sports profiled in this paper's sports guide, and this year's festival marks its seventh running. Organizers in Kyobashi say registration will remain open until the day of the event in mid-October.
Tokiwado, the perpetual-custody business previously reported to be minding more than 300 robots with new applicants facing a three-month wait, announced on the 13th that it would enter a team including a robot currently in its care, aiming for a fourth consecutive year at the festival. "A robot in our care deserves a chance to move too," said proprietor Tokuzo Tokiwa, 67, previously reported. "We're entering with the family's blessing." The entrant is a non-humanoid utility unit; the family that placed it in Tokiwado's care said, "Every time we visit on the monthly activation day, we end up talking about last year's festival. Hearing it's running again, we plan to go watch as a family."
As previously reported, the "anti-humanlike-design" regulation keeps non-humanoid forms the norm for symbiotic robots, and any modifications made for Kiko Run stay within that regulation's bounds. "We confirm in advance screening that no modification exceeds the regulation," organizers said, adding that a robot being instantly recognizable as a robot remains a non-negotiable premise of the event.
Debate over the legal status of symbiotic robots continues, with the 15th robot legislative council session, previously reported, heading toward an October public hearing. "However the debate over quasi-personhood plays out in parliament, this event judges whether the pair ran together as partners," an organizer said. "Apart from the institutional debate, things move forward on the ground in their own way."
Beyond the Tokiwado team, numerous university robotics clubs take part in Kiko Run. Organizers say two additional university clubs plan to enter this year, putting registration on pace for a record high. "Whether your partner clears an obstacle cleanly comes down to adjustments on the day," one student team member said. "Whether the pair is in sync matters more than the record, I think."
The Kiko Festival is scheduled for October in Kyobashi. Results will be announced in the format "n pairs, n minutes n seconds (n assists)," and, as with the other sports this paper covers, the detailed scoring rules will not be explained. "Enjoying it without fully understanding it is part of what makes this event good," organizers said.
