Robot, Robot, Robot, New Innovation in Japan

Here's another piece of innovation Japan takes pride in introducing to the world: a fully automated "Warehouse Robot" that takes out merchandise in just three seconds.

Hitachi, Ltd. announced August 25 its newly built autonomous two-arm robot that takes out merchandize just as fast as an average stockman. The company plans to market the robot in 2020. 

Other ventures follow suit. One marketed a wear-on type robot that helps you move about; another a ca-driving robot that takes the wheel away from you.

Now, the Hitachi robot has two sensors equipped on the platform which feel out where you are, where the target merchandize is, etc.  It takes only 3 second to do the work a regular stockman would have taken 7 seconds. A highly coordinated control system enable you to take out a 1-kilo target item located 30-cm deep. This should expedite work in the modern storehouse where many merchandises of fewer kinds are stocked on the shelves.

Cyberdyne Inc. already marketed on a rental basis six years ago a robo-suit "HAL", power-suit developed by Tsukuba University, and its contributions in healthcare/welfare sectors are fully appreciated. 

What about the driver-robot?

ZMP of Tokyo specializing in automatic driving established this May a joint venture DeNA to do research on robot taxi business. The idea is to introduce in 2020 an "unmanned Taxi" service in metropolitan Tokyo.

ZMP, or zero moment of point, specifies the point where dynamic reaction force at the contact of the foot with the ground does not produce any moment in the horizontal direction - meaning the point where the total of horizontal inertia and gravity forces equals zero. 
What does this have to do with an unmanned taxi? Well, my dear readers, any robot capable of driving your car without your help will have to be that sophisticated, will he/she not?

News Source: Sankei Shimbun