Wakamaru is a Japanese robot made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that is intended to perform natural communication with human beings. The yellow, 3-foot domestic robot debuted in 2005 at a $14,300-$15,000 USD price-point exclusively for Japanese households. Through its development, the Wakamaru has been used for presenting at exhibitions, guiding customers, and working as a desk receptionist. However, the Wakamaru has not advanced beyond its first model that was released in 2005. History The earliest form of the Wakamaru was in 2000, when Mitsubishi released information on a project entitled "MHI Frontier 21 Project." This project was launched with a small group of younger employees that proposed a "Service Robot Business Project." In 2001, development on a "Life-Assist Robot" was started and a prototype was built by product designer Toshiyuki Kita. aOn February 2, 2003, the Wakamaru was announced to media outlets in Japan and was displayed at the Robodex 2003 robot exhibition later in April. In 2005, Mitsubishi reported that they exclusively did a test sale of 100 units of Wakamaru robots to "ordinary households" in twenty three Tokyo neighborhoods. By 2007, the Wakamaru was available for rent for Japanese companies to use the robot as a receptionist for $1,000 a day. The robot resurfaced on the internet in 2014, when a Twitter user tweeted a photo of the robots in a garbage collection unit. Design The Wakamaru was designed by Toshiyuki Kita. He wanted to create "a humanoid robot that can approach its user" so that the Wakamaru could be seen as an independent personality rather than a machine. However, the robot was designed to look neither male or female. The robot was marketed to look not-threatening and likable. The yellow robot is three feet tall, consisting of a bottom base with a wheel and three body components on top. The arms are silver, while the hands are yellow. The circular head has round eyes which work as sensors and a wide mouth which makes the robot look toy-like. Hardware The Wakamaru moves by a wheel that can go as fast as one kilometer per hour. Its sensors can detect self position, infrared ray obstacles, and ultrasonic obstacles, and collisions. The Wakamaru product comes with the robot main unit, a charging station, a broadband router, touch panel, and computer. Its height is 100 cm and diameter is 45 cm. The bottom component contains the touch sensor, odometers (encoders)