Connect with you, connect with the community
What is Keihanna Avatar Challenge?
Keihanna Science City, which straddles Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, is one of Japan’s two great academic cities, along with Tsukuba Science City to the east. The Avatar Challenge is an initiative that uses remote-controlled robots (avatars) in this region, which is home to over 150 research facilities, university facilities, cultural facilities, and more.
The goal is “Danjiri style”
Like Danjiri, the entire community can support each other in each district.
We are paying close attention to safety to prevent accidents, and are working diligently to develop technology so that you can watch the games on your own device without having to go to the venue.
Anyone can participate from anywhere!
An avatar active in a futuristic city. I want them to be more active in real society, not just in movies and anime. We have been pursuing the safety, operability, and high performance of avatars every day.
The avatars used in the Keihanna Avatar Challenge can run at a speed of 6km/h and can be controlled remotely over long distances. In addition, we aim to create a festival-like event that everyone can easily enjoy, allowing them to freely view the competition from various perspectives (avatars and pilots).
Do you think that only engineers can use avatars? Anyone can participate, regardless of their position or age.
The Keihanna area is a cutting-edge city in science and technology, but it is also a large city with 10,000 employed people and over 100,000 residents in each area.
We want everyone living in Keihanna to know more about our passion for Avatar.
I sincerely hope that you will experience and become familiar with the latest science and technology.
In modern times, people are becoming more convenient and at the same time becoming more isolated. When people no longer talk to people or go out, they lose their purpose in life.
Regardless of position or age, everyone from small children to the elderly can enjoy it freely and equally. This movement reconnects people, which is becoming increasingly weak.
The Keihanna Avatar Challenge is a new type of festival planned with an eye to the future. All researchers, engineers, and planners are looking forward to your participation.
Our aspirations
Social isolation of citizens is a challenge in developed countries
Japanese society is said to be a developed country with many challenges, with the need to respond to the declining birthrate and aging population.
Japan’s biggest problem is that compared to other countries, there are many people who are socially isolated and the happiness level of its citizens is low.
Even if they do not develop a mental disorder, many people must realize that there are many people who tend to stay at home or who do not even come to the cleaning activities of the neighborhood association.
There are many people who only engage in social activities through SNS, and this can be described as group-based social withdrawal, and is a major cause of social division.
We hope that communication using remote-controlled robots (hereinafter referred to as avatars) can solve this situation, as there are fewer hurdles to dialogue even for people who are not good at face-to-face meetings.
Fostering a sense of unity among widely dispersed cities
Kansai Science and Culture City, where we live, is a wide-area cooperative city spread across 13 districts, and there is almost no sense of unity as a city.
If a mechanism to foster a sense of unity is perfected, a society in which citizens of Kansai, Japan, and the world can feel a sense of unity will no longer be a dream.
Festivals are creative activities that recognize the diversity of citizens.
The Keihanna Avatar Challenge originated from a plan to hold something similar to the Danjiri Festival, where avatars can participate inclusively (without discrimination or discrimination).
Could we do something like an F1 race with avatars driven by diverse participants, regardless of age, gender, able-bodied or disabled, and regardless of whether they are in the stadium or not?
If you can prepare multiple avatars (13 avatars per team), you should be able to run in a relay race format with different competitions, virtually jump across districts, and compete while covering all of Science City.
Similar to the old game Super Mario Bros., each district will set up a “checkpoint” where avatars will be challenged in competitions devised by that district.
The aim is for citizens to contribute to the festival as much as they like, doing what they like, when and where they like, depending on their skills, funds, preferences, and availability. Another big difference from elementary school sports days is that anyone can participate in the competition from far away from their avatar on the stadium via the internet or 5G/Starlink.
Differences from similar events
There are many similar competitions such as RoboCup. However, since most are competitions for autonomous robots, the people who create the robots are just having fun, and the audience is just watching.
It would be even more fun if the audience could join in and participate in the competition. Avatar can do that.
If we can cooperate and hold a festival based on the special skills of the citizens, such as creating and operating avatars, designing and operating competitions, we can raise the awareness of the residents, increase communication between them, and reduce feelings of social isolation. Fewer people should have them.
If we are successful in this area, we will be able to bring people together in a circle of solidarity in competitions throughout Kansai, Japan, and the world.
Expectations for future society
In particular, if you can freely control your avatar, you can eliminate double bookings and improve your skills through childcare and lifelong learning (recurrent education) while working.
It can also show how we should live in a future society that aims to solve the problem of the declining birthrate and realize a diverse society. I hope that the future will open up if all citizens have a high sense of autonomy and ethical values and utilize the tools of the new civilization called avatars.
Through play, you can experience how to live in such a future society. This is the goal of the Keihanna Avatar Challenge.