Robot Village, opened in commemoration of Yaskawa Electric’s 100th anniversary
Yaskawa Electric which is known for its creation of Japan’s first all-electric industrial robot, Motoman, in 1977 has its headquarters in Kita-Kyushu City, and since its founding in 1915, has gone from being called “Yaskawa as a motor manufacturer”, to“Yaskawa as an automation company” to “Yaskawa as a mechatronics company”as it has continued to always support major industries throughout the years. Currently, it is tackling issues on a global scale such as an aging society with a declining birthrate and the environmental energy problems. In commemoration of its 100th anniversary, the headquarters was re-designed to become Robot Village in 2015. With the Yaskawa Innovation Center where you can experience the joy and amazement of creation in the manufacturing city of Kita-Kyushu and cutting-edge robot technology, there is also the 10000 square meter Greenbelt where 100 species of plants and trees are located in an open space to be enjoyed all throughout the seasons. Finally, at the robot factories, numerous types of robots are manufactured.
Robot Village can be toured through group reservations
Tours are possible for groups (individual tours are not allowed) ranging from 10 to 60 people (older than Grade 5 in elementary school). Reservations must be made beforehand by telephone. The 100-minute tours are only given in Japanese by company staff. In addition to the “Robots Making Robots” factory tour (small industrial robot manufacturing factory and clean robot manufacturing factory), there is also a tour of the Yaskawa Innovation Center where you can learn about the attractions of robot technology and manufacturing. At the Innovation Center, there are displays of industrial robots as well as robots used in the biomedical industry, and you can also touch and actually operate the robots.