Thursday, September 08, 2005

Humanoid construction robot

TOKYO — Bridge builder Kawada Industries Inc and two partners on Thursday unveiled a humanoid robot designed to take on work at construction sites and other risky places.


The HRP-3P robot demonstrated its functions at Kawada's plant in the town of Haga in Tochigi Prefecture, walking on an icy surface as well as walking under simulated heavy rainfall. The battery-powered robot, which is 160 centimeters tall and weighs 65 kilograms, carries out remote-controlled and preprogrammed work.

See some movies...

Japan Today - News - Humanoid robot for risky work unveiled - Japan's Leading International News Network

posted by Prospector at 3:46 PM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What would be the economic consequences of having all manual labor automated? There is a lot of talk about the future decline of the population of Japan and its effect on the economy. Will they be able to sustain their productivity with fewer workers? Will these workers be able to pay for the care of a proportionally larger elderly population? Here in the USA these problems are mitigated by a steady stream of immigrants sustaining population growth. Immigrants pay into the social security system. What happens if all the jobs done by immigrants were now done by robots? Now that I think about it, I guess my question is simply, "What happens if robots take everybody's jobs?" Twenty years ago that question would be really science-fictiony but now...Are robotic bridge painters, window washers, dish washers, bartenders, street sweepers, avacado harvesters etc...Are they really that far off? What will people do all day? Heavy industry has already been automating for many years. Where does this process lead?

10:44 AM, September 09, 2005  

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