16 March 2016

16 March 2016

Miami/Tokyo/Naples, Italy / (March 16, 2016) --- Hitachi Rail USA, the American subsidiary of Hitachi Rail Italy, is pleased to announce the completion of a manufacturing facility for Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works’ new Metrorail vehicles.

VIPs from left to right: Maurizio Manfellotto, CEO, Hitachi Rail Italy, Kentaro Masai, Chief Operating Officer, Hitachi Rail Global, Honorable Daniella Levine Cava, Board of County Commissioners, District 8, Honorable Gloria Bellelli, Consul General, Italian Republic, Roberto Martell, Mayor of Medley, Florida, Honorable Carlos A. Gimenez, Mayor, Miami-Dade County, Giampaolo Nuonno, CEO, Hitachi Rail USA, Charles Scurr, Executive Director, Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, Alice N. Bravo, P.E., Director, Department of Transportation and Public Works.

The 140,400 square-feet plant, located in Medley, FL., will manufacture 136 cars and 272 motor bogies (it is the structural subassembly which is accommodating wheels, axles, motor and gear box) needed to replace the County’s Metrorail fleet. The Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works contracted the production to Hitachi Rail. The plant was completed in approximately six months and received the Certificate of Occupancy the first week of January 2016.

The assembly of the Metrorail vehicles begins this March, and the first completed vehicles will begin the qualification-testing phase by the end of the year. The first new Metrorail vehicles will be put into service in late 2017, after completing the testing phase. The production of the new Metrorail vehicles will last until the first half of 2019.

The construction of this new Hitachi production site involved more than 50 sub-contractors and suppliers, principally based in Miami-Dade County or in South Florida, and required the development of almost 50,000 man-hours of construction.

“This is the first facility that Hitachi Rail is opening in the United States, and we’re excited that the company has chosen to invest in our world-class community,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez. “The opening of this production facility is projected to create 100 jobs in Miami-Dade County and many local subcontracts. We look forward to working with Hitachi to put our residents to work, further diversify our economy, and deliver cleaner, safer, more reliable and convenient mobility options to our 2.6 million residents.”

"The production system that has been prepared for Miami allows us to achieve high performance and build modern vehicles that meet the needs of the transportation fleet for Miami-Dade County,” said Kentaro Masai, COO of Hitachi Rail, “Our primary goal is to ensure a quality product in a timely fashion.”

“The opening of this new site and the launch of the new fleet represent an important step in the expansion of our company,” said Maurizio Manfellotto, CEO of Hitachi Rail Italy. “We remain consistent in the creation of relevant products that meet the needs of our customers.” “This facility will enable us to increase our industrial capacity and build a vehicle that meets the requested transportation needs,” adds Manfellotto. “Hitachi Rail has a great history in the United States and this project marks the beginning of the new direction under the management of the Hitachi Group.”

About Hitachi Rail USA Inc.

Hitachi Rail USA Inc. is the operating arm of Hitachi Rail Italy throughout North America. Headquartered in San Francisco, California; it is specializes in manufacturing, commissioning and warranty support of light and heavy rail cars. 

About Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A

Hitachi Rail Italy specializes in the manufacture of technologically advanced rolling stock. Created by the evolution of AnsaldoBreda, the most important Italian brand with more than 160 years of history in the rail and metro sector, Hitachi Rail Italy has a wide range of products, ranging from high speed to driverless metros. http://italy.hitachirail.com/en/.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

For further Information please contact the Press Offices:

Karla Damien at kdamien@miamidade.gov  | +1 786 4695420 for Miami-Dade County.

Tamie Nagamoto at tamie.nagamoto@hal.hitachi.com  | +1 914 333 2987 for Hitachi

Alessandra Chiappetti alessandra.chiappetti.ext@hitachirail.com  | phone + 1 212 228-4889 for Hitachi Rail Italy

29 March 2016

Preventing drivers to apply alternative gases instead of their breathes

Prototype of portable breath-based alcohol detection device

Tokyo, March 24, 2016 – Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (TSE: 7267)‘s subsidiary Honda R&D Co., Ltd. (Honda) announced they have successfully developed a prototype of a portable alcohol detector that is tamper-resistant as it can distinguish human breath from alternative gases and that can be integrated into smart key. This device is capable of distinctively detecting the saturated water vapor from human breath and accurately measuring alcohol level within 3 seconds once a driver exhales breath onto the device. Hitachi and Honda jointly collaborated on this technology development in an effort to create the ideal alcohol detector.

They also developed a system that can show the alcohol level measured by the detector on the vehicle’s display panel. It can become an ignition interlock to stop a vehicle starting its engine when it detects a driver under the influence of alcohol.

The effort to prevent or stop drunk driving is global and is an on-going focus of progress in safe driving technology. In Japan, transportation operators are required to use an alcohol detector to test whether professional drivers are under the influence of alcohol before they begin their shifts. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched and directed the development of ignition interlock technology that connects alcohol detectors to a vehicle’s engine.

The prototype developed by Hitachi and Honda has advantages over the other ignition interlocks. These other systems require drivers to perform the test from the driver’s seat once they are already inside the vehicle. With the Hitachi/Honda device, drivers can measure their alcohol level from anywhere and, importantly, prior to entering their vehicle, thus reducing the temptation to drive. In addition, the Hitachi/Honda device can confirm that the applied gas is human exhaled breath and can detect the level of alcohol at the same time, an enhancement over currently available devices. Advancements like these will contribute to reducing or eliminating instances of drunk driving.

The features of this newly developed technology are as follows:

(1) Achieved both portability and human breath detection at the same time by making the saturated water vapors sensor very small. Also saves power.

Hitachi has developed sensor technology that can detect the saturated water vapors from human breath with a high degree of sensitivity. When human breath is exhaled onto the sensor which is an oxide insulator*¹ sandwiched between the electrodes, the water vapors from the breath is adsorbed on the insulator and then an electric current flows between the electrodes.

When this phenomenon occurs, the sensor can recognize if the applied gas is human breath. Furthermore, micro comb-shaped electrodes are used to extend the length of electrodes and to narrow the distance between electrodes, improving the sensitivity of the sensor. This enables the device to detect a tiny amount of saturated water vapors even though the sensor area has been decreased to only a 5mm square. As a result, the device is highly portable and can be used prior to a driver entering his vehicle. The device is also battery powered that is achieved from a design with the low power consumption technology.

(2) Achieved high accuracy measurement of ethanol concentration using three types of semiconductor gas sensors

In compliance with Japan’s regulations related to drunk driving, the device has an improved ability to accurately measure the ethanol concentration from exhaled breath. The ethanol concentration is measured*² by three types of semiconductor gas sensors to detect ethanol, metabolized acetaldehyde in breath after drinking, and hydrogen. This method improves accuracy by about three times*³ compared with devices that only use an ethanol sensor for measurement. Also, the device is capable of measuring as little as 0.015 mg/L (an ethanol concentration) compared to 0.15 mg/L of the alcohol which constitutes being “under the influence of alcohol” and a charge of drunk driving in Japan.

(3) Developed a system that is integrated into a smart key function

By applying the recorded measurement result of the alcohol detector into the engine ignition mechanism, the system can prevent the vehicle’s engine from starting if it detects that the driver’s breath is over the preset limit. An alert indicator also shows the measurement results on the vehicle’s display panel if the detector equipped smart key is close to the driver seat.

When validating the efficacy of this newly developed prototype, it was confirmed that the device can detect whether drivers are under the influence of alcohol based on the Japan’s drunk driving regulation within three seconds.

Hitachi and Honda are aiming to commercialize this developed technology through effectively collecting data from future validation tests.

The achievement of this technology will be presented on April 12 – 14, at the SAE 2016 World Congress and Exhibit, which will be held in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

*1 Oxide insulator: an insulator with metal-oxide such as glass or ceramic.
*2 The concentration is calculated by differential evolution algorithm. The algorithm is one of the numerical analysis methods to obtain best solutions for plural unknown parameters in equations.
*3 Compared by Hitachi.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society’s challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

About Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda (TSE: 7267), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a global manufacture of vehicle, motorcycle and power product that sold more than 28 million units in the year of 2014. Also the company has started　the delivery of Honda Jet since the end of 2015, and the fundamental researches for the future advanced technology including robotics is still on going. Since its foundation in 1948, based upon the dream of using technology as a means of serving people and following Honda Philosophy, Honda has continuously challenged to create technologies and make products that bring joy to our customers around the world. For more information on Honda, please visit the company's website at http://world.honda.com.

Contacts

U.S. : Tamie Nagamoto 
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Phone: +1-914-333-2987
E-mail: tamie.nagamoto@hal.hitachi.com

Japan : Konomi Watanabe 
Hitachi, Ltd.
Phone: +81-3-5208-9325
E-mail: konomi.watanabe.ro@hitachi.com

8 April 2016

Commence proof-of-concept with customers

Tokyo, April 8, 2016 – Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced the development of “EMIEW3,” a humanoid robot, and its “remote brain”*¹ robotics IT platform. EMIEW3, capable of autonomously approaching customers requiring assistance, was developed to provide necessary services and guidance in stores and public facilities. Enhanced by the “remote brain” consisting of a robotics IT platform connected to cloud-based intelligent processing systems and a remote operation system to monitor and control multiple robots at various locations, EMIEW3 is able to provide high quality services. Using the EMIEW3, robotics IT platform, and ‘developers/operators’ package, Hitachi together with customers, will commence proof-of-concept (PoC) on new robot services for various situations and environments.

Since the announcement of “EMIEW” in 2005, Hitachi has continued to develop human symbiotic robots that can safely co-exist with humans, providing robot-based services with advanced communication capabilities. Using EMIEW2, first announced in 2007, Hitachi developed functions necessary for customer and guidance services, and demonstrated capabilities which include autonomous mobility at a brisk human walking pace, isolation of human voice from background noise, accessing information from the Web to identify objects and using indoor network cameras as “eyes” to locate objects. More recently, artificial intelligence technology was applied for functions requiring advanced intelligent processing such as for dialogue with appropriate response to questions posed in different forms and predictive function to avoid collision with moving objects which may suddenly appear from blind angles.

Equipped with the various functions developed to date for EMIEW2, the newly developed EMIEW3 is further enhanced with functions to efficiently provide customer and guidance services such as the ability to identify a person requiring assistance, autonomously approach a person and initiate customer services, share information with other EMIEW3 units to ensure smooth service continuation, and if knocked over, to resume a standing position.

Functions achieved with EMIEW3 and the robotics IT platform, are as described below:

1. High activeness based on intelligent processing by the remote brain

A remote brain configuration was used to conduct intelligent processing such as on voice, image and language outside of the robot to enable high quality customer and guidance services. For example, by linking human movement and network cameras for environmental recognition, the robot can identify customers requiring support and autonomously initiate customer services. Further, the voice and language processing technology allows voice to be recognized and translated even with background street noise, thus supporting business in communities with a large number of tourists.

2. High operation availability of robot services

The remote operation system which monitors and controls multiple robots at different locations allows information to be shared between multiple robots and enables smooth transfer of services. Further, in the event of robot failure, restoration instructions can be sent from a remote location to quickly resume services, thus improving the operation availability of robot services.

3. High mobility robot body capable of various services

The practical features previously developed with EMIEW2 for indoor services are kept in EMIEW3 such as its compact height of 90cm, portable weight of 15kg, ability to keep pace with humans adjusting speeds up to a max. of 6km/h and overcome differences in floor levels up to 15mm. In addition, a new ability to resume a standing position if knocked over, has been embedded in EMIEW3.

Using the EMIEW3 and robotics IT platform, Hitachi together with customers will commence demonstration experiments in robot services. To realize practical robot services that will contribute to the advancement of society and business, Hitachi will employ processes such as Hitachi’s original collaborative creation method, NEXPERIENCE,*² sharing customer challenges and creating solutions together with customers, and open innovation with partners worldwide.

*1 An approach commonly employed in robotics. Functions requiring real-time processing are conducted on the robot side, and those that do not, are conducted on an external system

*2 Hitachi’s original systematized customer collaborative creation process with unique methodologies, tools, and spaces. 15 October 2015 news release “Hitachi Establishes NEXPERIENCE for Accelerating Social Innovation Business” <http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2015/10/151015.html>

Hitachi Research Highlights: Robotics website

http://www.hitachi.com/rd/portal/highlight/robotics/index.html

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society’s challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

2 May 2016

18 May 2016

23 May 2016

29 July 2016

Tokyo, July 29, 2016 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) today announced the executive changes. Please click here to read the complete press release http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2016/07/f_160729a.pdf

Press Contacts

Japan
Mickey Takeuchi
Hitachi, Ltd.
+81-3-5208-9324
masayuki.takeuchi.cc@hitachi.com

U.S.
Tamie Nagamoto
Hitachi America, Ltd.
+1-914-333-2987
tamie.nagamoto@hal.hitachi.com

29 July 2016

3 August 2016