Open House to Conduct AI Humanoid Field Trial at Shizuoka Event

The Future Festival Lab, sponsored by Open House, will be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 at the venue for the Daido-gei World Cup in Shizuoka 2026, in Shizuoka. Sankei Shimbun reported that an AI-powered, domestically produced humanoid danced to improvised rap at a news conference ahead of the event, and that a field trial is planned during the event.

The dance demonstration at the event will give visitors an opportunity to see the humanoid in action. However, a public demonstration alone does not confirm the robot’s reliability or safety in on-site work. The trial’s evaluation criteria and results will be important in assessing its practical capabilities.

The focus is not on a humanoid product launch or mass-production plan, but on a field trial at an event venue. The humanoid danced to improvised rap at the news conference, but this was a public performance and should be evaluated separately from information on task-completion rates, long-duration operation and safety in on-site work. Holding the event in a public setting will give spectators a chance to see the robot in motion, but the successful performance alone does not show how well it can adapt to changing environments or perform repetitive tasks reliably. A related story by this newspaper, [Highlanders CEO says humanoid robot parts will be “almost entirely domestically produced,” announces partnership with Mitsubishi Motors](/news/hairandaazu-masuoka-ceo-mitsubishijidousha-tono-kyougyou-de-3d9985), reported that the Highlanders CEO outlined a domestic sourcing policy for humanoid robot parts and a mass-production plan. The Sankei Shimbun report describes the robot as “domestically produced,” but does not identify its developer, component makeup or any connection to Highlanders. The two therefore cannot be linked as part of the same business or supply chain. The domestic parts-sourcing policy and the public demonstration of a completed robot represent different aspects of the industry: the supply side and the use and display of robots. For a clearer picture of the industry, the key question is how far a motion demonstration contributes to validating real-world operation. The technical information gained will differ depending on whether the trial is limited to performing in front of spectators or also tests decision-making in response to people and surroundings, continuous operation and recovery from failures. If the robot’s developer and components are disclosed, it may also be possible to assess the relationship between domestic sourcing policies and the actual machine. The next points to watch are the trial’s evaluation criteria and results, who developed the robot, and whether testing will continue after the event. Without those details, there is limited basis for judging whether the demonstration marks a transition to practical use.