I went to Japan with one question: can robots eventually do what Oasis Zero needs, in the environments I need them in?
I came home knowing yes. The technology is a matter of time.
The trickier thing is the market. The people I want to serve don't know this category exists. There's no demand yet because there's no awareness yet. My job right now isn't building the robot. It's understanding the market well enough to eventually show it something it doesn't know to ask for.
I visited the Toto museum while I was there. Toto invented the Japanese washlet, now standard in homes and hotels across the country. When they introduced it, nobody asked for it. Their bathrooms felt fine. They'd never seen another version. Toto made something visible that had never been visible before. The desire followed. That's the position Oasis Zero is in.
At RO-MAN, researchers and engineers filled the room. At the same time, in China, humanoid robots were breaking a world record. I kept moving between conversations. Every time I mentioned the animals, something shifted. People leaned in and started talking about their own pets. The animals traveled with me across every world I walked into.
I also spent time at a war museum. I learned the histories of dogs and horses sent into wars they never chose. They gave everything and received nothing back. I sat with it quietly.
A robot can cut grass. A water buffalo can eat that same grass. We humans need to decide what is desirable. To me, animals change a space in ways a machine never could. Robots belong in this picture because they absorb the labor that burns people out and compromises animal care. The goal is reciprocity: every being gives what it naturally is, and receives what it genuinely needs.
That's what I came home with.
What mundane task of your life would you replace if you had a magic wand to have someone or something take care of it?
Lead within. Lead your pack.
Chigusa.