Hitachi Ltd.

Hitachi is a Japanese industrial group founded in 1910 and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under code 6501. It earned its place in the history of humanoid robotics with the EMIEW series, whose name abbreviates “Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate”. The first robot appeared in 2005, and in 2007 the company unveiled EMIEW 2, noticeably smaller and lighter than its predecessor. Both projects were meant to serve as office receptionists and companions. They moved at up to 6 km/h, avoided simple obstacles and held conversations within a vocabulary of roughly one hundred words. Those figures were modest even for the decade, and next to today’s robots built on “VLA Models: How AI Controls Humanoid Robots in 2026” they look almost symbolic. Context matters, though: in the mid-2000s a machine that could roam an office on its own and answer questions was a research experiment, not a product. Hitachi never put either robot on sale, and there is no confirmed information about further development of the series after 2007. The historical details come mainly from general overviews of humanoid robots, not from the manufacturer’s own materials.

In our coverage Hitachi is represented by a single model: EMIEW 2. It is a prototype office service robot in the service robots category, about 80 cm tall and weighing 13 kg. The maker gave it 25 degrees of freedom; what that figure means in practice is explained in “Degrees of Freedom (DOF) in Humanoid Robots”. The machine travels at up to 6 km/h, avoids obstacles and can hold a simple conversation. The tasks it was designed for were accompanying staff in the office and greeting visitors, a role close to what service robots in hotels and restaurants do today, described in “Service Robots in Restaurants and Hotels”. EMIEW 2 is a prototype: it has no price, no sales offer and no datasheet in the usual sense. You cannot buy it, rent it or order it for trials. It remains a reference point in the history of reception robots and a good illustration of how quickly expectations of conversational machines have changed. The wider picture of this group of machines is in the humanoid robots category.

Hitachi’s market position in service robotics cannot be measured in numbers, because the group never sold a single EMIEW robot. That sets it apart from companies that deliver finished machines today, such as SoftBank Robotics. It was SoftBank Robotics, with its Pepper robot, that later took over the niche of receptionist and companion robots which EMIEW had foreshadowed. In that company Hitachi is more a forerunner than a competitor. The comparison with Honda Motor Co., which shut down its ASIMO humanoid in 2022, or with Toyota Motor, which develops teleoperated machines, looks similar. All three Japanese groups treated humanoids as a showcase of technology rather than as goods. For a reader looking for an office or reception robot the conclusion is simple: Hitachi has no offer in this segment. We know of no announcement that the group will return to the subject.

The EMIEW robots have no offer or distributor in Poland. The prototype never went on sale in any market, so there are no deployments in Polish offices or facilities either. We know of no prices that could be converted into zlotys, and no trade partners. Anyone looking for a reception robot for a Polish company should turn to the service solutions available today, described in the service robots category, and can read about use in hotels and retail in the hotel section.

EMIEW 2 is a curiosity from the history of robotics, not a purchase proposal. In 2007 Hitachi showed what a robot receptionist might look like, but it never finished the road to market. If you are interested in the past of humanoids, it is worth reading about. If you need a robot for actual work, choose a machine with a price, service and a distributor.