For as long as anyone can remember, the Tokyo International Robot Exhibition has been a showcase for Japan at its wackiest: stern industrial machines lurked backstage as waltzing, noodle-making or ping-pong-playing humanoids stole the limelight.But in recessionary 2009, with Japanese industry writhing in pain, the national robot obsession has turned serious. For the first time, the show explained how the machines really are going to take over.A new mood was in the air: the downturn, said one Tsukuba University engineer, had honed Japanese robotics research and forced it to be more practical. Companies and universities that were once given unlimited budgets to push the boundaries of robotics were now being told to come up with something usable and commercial and fast.
Toyota’s recent decision to pull out of Formula 1 was a hot topic of discussion: would its next cost-cutting move be to close the robotics division or would it still throw millions into perfecting a trumpet-playing automaton?The fun stuff, accordingly, was downplayed while potential applications were pushed to the front. That gave many of the companies a chance to show that, quietly but steadily, the technology has been improving by leaps and bounds.Getting a cute humanoid robot such as Honda’s Asimo to go from walking to running took decades of effort, said one Tokyo University engineer, but the work of making a machine into a better pizza-maker than a human moved much faster.
Japanese robots are being built with open software codes, to encourage outside programmers to come up with ideas to make them even more useful. It is all working rather too well.Perhaps disturbingly for workforces around the world, there is a fast-growing list of human jobs that robots can do quicker and better.The show marked the debut of Kawada Industries’ Hiro robot – a humanoid that can identify colours, shapes and human faces and boasts some of the most dextrous mechanical paws ever created.
Asked what purpose it might serve, Hiro’s handler explained that at the Nissan factory, the production line already consists almost entirely of robots. However, occasionally they have to bring in a human. “This robot could replace that person,” the handler said.Kawada was not the only company whose work may soon inflate global unemployment numbers. Yaskawa, occupying the largest booth at the show, proudly touted its Motoman series of assembly robots. These, claimed the company, would soon be “replacing people without taking up too much space or requiring any change in the layouts of production lines”.
In the next booth, a representative of Yaskawa’s fiercest competitor, FANUC, said: “What’s amazing is their [the robots’] speed. They can achieve the speed of the most experienced workers. We don’t need to worry about the employment issue … When they’re not required to work, we just turn off the switch.”Kawada and Yaskawa’s main business until now has been producing robots for the auto industry. The priority now is to push the machines into more areas of the manufacturing and services industries. As well as spot-welding a Toyota Prius, Motoman can be retooled to perform routine blood tests faster than a team of nurses.
The service and nursing industries are the primary target. As the Japanese population continues to age, robotics companies have spotted a potential market. This year, developers touted an array of robotic guide dogs, nurses, cleaners, firemen and even robots that can fold and press towels.
A Kawada engineer speculated that human workers and robot workers may soon be working face to face; a practice currently prohibited by Japanese trade ministry regulations.“As things stand, robots and humans don’t work together and are separated by fences,” he said. “We are working on the assumption that those barriers will be gone in the future … our society has fewer children, and a lot of people want robots to do the hard work.”Robots that were once there for laughs are now being programmed to take jobs or, as the legend on one pair of steely hands had it: “Diverse performances of this dual-arm, multi-functioning robot enable the automation of human work.”
United States space agency, NASA, will get a new crew in outer space. NASA’s new astronauts are unique, because he’s not human, but robots that resemble humans. This robot will be sent into space this year. Astronaut robot called Robonaut 2 or R2 will become permanent residents of the international space station.Robot astronaut is a project of cooperation between NASA with General Motors (GM) – an American car company. R2 specification does not indiscriminate. He must be able to become an assistant and worked with humans, both astronauts in outer space on Earth maupung GM workers.
Robot R2 weighing 300 pounds was made up of head, body, with two arms and two hands. R2 will be launched simultaneously with the launch of space shuttle Discovery, as part of STS-133 mission planned next September. While R2 flight out, engineers on Earth will continue to monitor the robot working in a room without weights. For a while, the activity of R2 will be limited in the Destiny laboratory. However, in the future, with additional modifications, this will enable robots to work more broadly, outside or in a complex space station.
“The project is realizing the promise that in the future, robots could work in outer space or on Earth. Not only to replace humans, but also works with humans,” said Director of NASA’s Exploration Systems in Washington, John’s Olson, just as it loaded the page NASA. “Combined robotic and human potential, will allow us to go far, reaching more than what we can possibly imagine today. Not just shapes such as humans, R2 is also similar to the way humans work, can even replace humans in dangerous tasks. For now, still a prototype and R2 do not have adequate protection to exist outside the space station in extreme temperatures.
Santosamaru 