As technology advances at lightning speed, more and more jobs around the world are being replaced with robotics. While humanity is still a long way off from being completely replaced with AI, the debate on the rapidly advancing technology and how to use it properly will rage on for years to come. That said, that’s still no reason to stifle progress and one group in Japan, MaSiRo Project (short for “Maid Apprentice Substantializing Ideal Robot” Project), has been advancing robot technology by leaps and bounds within the last couple of years.
In May 2019, the creator who identifies as A_Say introduced the world to a robot that could follow you around while holding your hand. This was only the beginning though and A_Say continued to dream big with his goal being actual, real-life, robot maids that could help humans in their day-to-day lives.
The concept of a maid who is actually a robot is not something new to anime fans. Older fans will remember Chobits, To Heart, and Mahoromatic just to cite some examples. A_Say wants to bring the future to us as quickly as possible, however, and thus began his quest. After a successful 2021 crowdfunding campaign that raised 300% of its goal (and led to the birth of two more robots, CiRo [pronounced “chiro”] and CiYa [pronounced “chiya”]) and a grant from the INNO-vation Program, an award given out by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to creators with bold technology ideas, A_Say, and his team got to work. After much trial and error, a proof-of-concept project was put together and from October 7th to 9th, 2022, MaSiRo and her two sisters successfully worked at a pop-up cafe in Akihabara.
In the promotional video seen above, they gave the audience a short glimpse into what visiting this cafe was like. The first thing that happens is walking through the front door and being greeted by MaSiRo. After sitting at a table, the customer can mark what they want to order on a card and ring a special bell which transmits a signal to the server (MaSiRo) who then takes the card to the kitchen and returns with the order on a tray. Meanwhile, the other two robots (who are incapable of serving at the moment) hang out in the background and interact with customers in other ways. It’s important to note that at no point were the robots being controlled by humans via direct commands or remote control. Customers were served by a robot that had been programmed to do exactly that. Over the course of three days, the cafe served a limited number of customers, with A_Say commenting in an interview afterward that he considered it “a great success!”
They posted a second video to their official YouTube channel which gave another look at what it was like to visit the cafe and have your order taken/delivered by a robot.
As you can see in both videos, A_Say and his team still have a long way to go before they will realize his dreams, but that they have made it even this far is impressive and commendable.
While maids in Akiba don’t have to fear their jobs being taken over by robots at any point soon (though the current anime season makes me worry for their job safety for other reasons), it’s very interesting to think about how many of us might actually see a maid cafe staffed by emotive and interactive robots within our lifetimes. There are lots of reasons to fear the future, but this isn’t one of them.
If you’d like to keep up with future developments on the MaSiRo Project, A_Say has dedicated websites in both Japanese and English.
