How a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics

Afterward, he worked at Komatsu Manufacturing—because, he said, he liked bulldozers. But in 1974, he saw that Tomy was hiring, and he wanted to make toys. “I was told that it was the No. 1 toy company in Japan, so I decided ,” he said. “I took a night train from Tohoku to Tokyo to take a job exam, and that’s how I ended up joining the company.”

The inspiration for the Armatron came from a newspaper clipping that Watanabe’s boss brought to him one day. “It showed an image of a holding an egg with three fingers. I think we started out thinking, ‘This is where things are heading these days, so let’s make this,’” he recalled.

As the lead of a small team, Watanabe briefly turned his attention to another project, and by the time he returned to the robotic arm, the team had a prototype. But it was quite different from the Armatron’s final form. “The hand stuck out from the main body to the side and could only move about 90 degrees. The control panel also had six movement positions, and they were switched using six switches. I personally didn’t like that,” said Watanabe. So he went back to work.

Watanabe’s breakthrough was inspired by the radio-controlled helicopters he operated as a hobby. Holding up a radio remote controller with dual joystick controls, he told me, “This stick operation allows you to perform four movements with two arms, but I thought that if you twist this part, you can use six movements.”

“I had always wanted to create a system that could rotate 360 degrees, so I thought about how to make that system work,” he added.