The following week HOSPI(R) will be at the Narita International Airport's "Narita Travel Lounge" to bus tables. Panasonic says that there aren't any plans to install the 'bot in either location permanently, however. Probably a good thing, right? After all, humans need those jobs too.

Panasonic describes the robot as a delivery machine that uses pre-programmed mapping info in concert with a collision-avoidance algorithm and an array of sensors to get around. About four hospitals in the world are using it for carrying medicine and other bits around campus. Now it just needs one of Panasonic's cute projectors stuffed inside it to complete the whole R2D2 vibe.