Humanoid Robots showcased at International Robot Exhibition
Japan is renowned for its robotics. As Japan employs over a quarter of a million industrial robot workers, the robotics industry is more important in Japan than in other countries.
The first anthropomorphic robot built in the world was WABOT-1 in Japan, 1973. Since then, there has been many developments regarding humanoid robots in Japan.
At the recent International Robot Exhibition (IREX) in Tokyo, a slew of new androids were presented. IREX is an exhibition conducted every 2 years and showcases 2 categories of robots – Service and Industrial robots.
Some examples of humanoid robots showcased
<Junko Chihira>
This robot is not able to walk yet but ‘she’ can use her arms to gesture.
Looks… real Picture credits to : techinasia.com
<Actroid-DER2>
Actroid-DER2 is designed to be a robotic greeter at stores and events. It helps to serve customers at booths.
Picture credits to : techinasia.com
Would do with some teeth- Kai Yeat Picture credits to : techinasia.com
Features
As you can tell from the pictures, humanoid robots are generally designed to resemble us humans. As much as possible, they try to move like us. Some models are able to walk though it is still not yet perfected and in development. Their main purpose often are to complement humans in work, generally due to projected changing worker demographics in Japan (Remember that Japan is experiencing ageing population :O), As such, these robots comprises of many sensitive sensors and delicate motors to make them move as ‘naturally’ as possible, as mentioned, to resemble humans as much as possible.
Kai Yeat : Ever wondered by humanoid robots are generally made in the image of a female? Feel free to discuss!
If you are interested to know more about humanoid robots, please find out more using the links below!
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanoid_robot
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~mperkows/CLASS_479/2015PSURobotTheatre/2015_0032
_Humanoid%20Robots%202.pdf
Post by Leroy Lim
Edited by Kai Yeat