Latest Invention: Robot that Could Replace Humans in the Workplace

Its makers, Kawada Industries and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), hope the robot will be a step towards creating a model that can help ease greying Japan's looming labour shortage. "We designed a working robot in the image of a lean but well-muscled track-and-field athlete," Noriyuki Kanehira, robotic systems manager at Kawada, told a news conference to unveil the blue-and-white "HRP-4." Designed to help researchers develop models that could replace humans in repetitive manual labour, the latest "athlete" model in a near 10-year-old series updates the feminine, catwalk-strutting, karaoke-singing HRP-4C. But the tone this time is altogether more serious, according to a joint statement from its developers. "It is Japan's urgent task for the early 21st Century to develop robots that could carry out simple, repetitive works ... in a bid to complement the workforce in a country that is rapidly ageing with fewer and fewer children". Standing at 151 centimetres (59 inches) tall, the robot in a demonstration Wednesday stood on one foot, twisted its waist, struck poses, walked in accordance to given voice commands and moved its head to track objects. The HRP-4 boasts joints that move more freely than its predecessors and can run a range of separately-developed software applications, its makers said. Kawada and AIST will start selling the robot to universities and research institutes in Japan and abroad from January 2011. The price tag for what is described as a "low cost" model is 26 million yen (306,000 dollars) each. Its creators hope to sell three-to-five units a year.

Read more at: phys.org...

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There are estimates that these devises could begin replacing people in the workforce on a large scale by 2050. Few people realize the effect technology had on the great depression. New devises replaced people on the job in many different fields and this has the potential of being much more serious.

That is very close to being a treaty violation. A treaty violation would call down unimaginable doom upon all of our heads. Doesn't matter what country you live in. Humans are not allowed robot slaves or space travel. We agreed to that when our forefathers came to this planet as refugees. We violate the treaty and the peace we have had for 150,000 or so years will be broken. Bad idea. They just need some mexicans. We have plenty, we should them them some.

I love this kind of stuff, it's amazing how fast technology is going.

Maybe we will have NS-5s in about 10 or 20 years, maybe less.




Peace

Japan has an electricity crisis......... so lets build something that will consume excessive amounts of electricity.

reply to post by Kashai


it looks like they created a breakdancer, not a robot.

why wouldn't you want a slave labourer to build a house for you, a car, or work for you.

it'll never be anything more than a machine unless you give it a soul.

it won't be wrong, no more than a wrench could be wrong. it will be a tool a machine. nothing more nothing less.

it will free humanity. but beware the other side.

So what happens when there are no jobs anymore?

Who will buy the products these machines make?

Who will have the money to buy the stuff the robot's make if they replace people?
I guess those that have money and don't have to work.

Originally posted by kdog1982
Who will have the money to buy the stuff the robot's make if they replace people?
I guess those that have money and don't have to work.

I really like your Avatar

That is a very good point, these robots could effectively replace humans in relation to menial labor. By that I mean just about any job that could fall under that category. It could actually replace anyone who is working based upon a HS Diploma or 2 year college degree in the US. 22% of the population in the US have a BAand/or above and in these Robots in effect could replace everyone else.

hello ,
im also belongs to computer field and i crazy for knowing new technology and research related to robotics and technology..

Law:
Must be OWNED by HUMAN empolye ONLY.
Is NOT allowed to REPLACE human employe.
If applied to bussines or factorylike conditions.

Id like one...

politicians and solicitors could be replaced by non-corruptable machines.....thats good...

i'm sure that there's other non-productive dead wood that could be replaced....

The Japanese should multiply like crazy and forget about the robots. This was their only purpose to use robots due to aging population and lack of labor force.

Wow. I like it, the way it walks is fantastic.

This should be the future, stupid labor jobs should be thing of past.
The surplus of products will be bigger than the demand and we could focus as civilization to aspire for greater things than manual/repetitive labor. If you are ever did manual and repetitive labor in RL you know that it is not fulfilling. It's hardly something you would aspire as the best job in the world.

Originally posted by Robonakka
That is very close to being a treaty violation. A treaty violation would call down unimaginable doom upon all of our heads. Doesn't matter what country you live in. Humans are not allowed robot slaves or space travel. We agreed to that when our forefathers came to this planet as refugees. We violate the treaty and the peace we have had for 150,000 or so years will be broken. Bad idea. They just need some mexicans. We have plenty, we should them them some.

This is the science forum. Fantasy and Science fiction is a few aisles down.