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Added on the 15/06/2015 17:46:54 - Copyright : Reuters EN
Robots cook, bake and even wrap sushi rolls at a Tokyo expo to showcase Japan's latest food processing technologies. Sharon Reich reports.
Visitors to the Tokyo Robot Center Showroom on Tokyo's Odaiba Island watched as a DuAro dual-armed SCARA robot made traditional Japanese nigiri sushi as part of a project launched by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The robot gracefully placed the fish toppings on little balls of rice while explaining every movement with audio and text appearing on the robot's 'face', which consisted of a mouth, nose, and big black eyes animated on a screen in between the two arms. The chef-bot was featured at the newly opened 'Kawasaki Robostage', a location open to the public designed to demonstrate the future of coexistence between humans and robots. It's part of a larger initiative from the Japanese government called 'Robot Strategy', which aims to introduce more widespread robot usage at every level of society. Robot Strategy has a dual purpose - to help manage the effects of a rapidly aging society by filling in for jobs usually handled by young people and to make Japan a global center for robotics innovation in order to serve the demands of the global economy of the future.
If you've ever watched the hit Japanese anime show Gundam Wing, you may have fantasized about owning and piloting your own giant, humanoid robot. Well now the chance may finally be yours. Engineers in Osaka, led by lead designer Hajime Sakamoto, have finally finished a massive operational humanoid robot with a built-in cockpit into which the driver of the robot can climb and direct the movements of the metal behemoth after 6 years of construction.
This four-wheeled robot rover is undergoing its final trials on Japan's Tottori Sand Dunes before it will be flown into space and out to its final test - a 1,640 foot ride on the surface of the moon. Called the Moonraker, the rover was built by Team Hakuto of Japan to compete with 15 other teams from all over the world for the $20 million dollar grand prize in the Google Lunar XPrize competition. Google's Lunar XPrize competition calls for participating teams to create a rover, launch it into space, land it on the moon, have it travel at least 1,640 feet, and then send images of its travels back to the earth. The first team to successfully complete the challenge will take home the grand prize. Team Hakuto, which means 'white rabbit' in Japanese, is well on its way to securing the prize money - their Moonraker rover is scheduled to be launched from Earth by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket soon. The purpose is to create a cheap machine to help humans easily explore the moon, and maybe even prepare it for colonization. The Hakuto team hope that the Moonraker will be able to explore holes on the moon's surface and perhaps discover cave systems. The future looks interesting indeed.
London-based Moley Robotics demonstrate their 'robot chef' that uses two complex, fully articulated robotic hands to prepare meals with all the flair of a master chef. The precise movements of a human chef preparing a meal are first motion-captured, before being turned into commands that direct the state-of-the-art robotic hands. Joel Flynn reports.