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Advanced manufacturing technologies and skills: they make a cornerstone of a country. Due to the aging society, skill transfer of expert technicians who are responsible for these advancements may be at risk in the near future ———— Currently, many companies in the manufacturing industry are raising a red flag to this problem. And it is a problem not only for Japan but for many developed countries treading on the border of the 100-year-life era. In this light, a new robot system that shows promise in solving the problem of skill transfer has been unveiled. Kawasaki put on display its new robot system during the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) 2017 (Nov. […]
The obstacles in robot automation Recently, industrial robots have been working for various tasks previously performed by humans. An example is the spot-welding robots found in automobile factories that melt and attach separate steel plate parts together with heat. Yet, obstacles still exist to achieve automation by robots; did you know that in the manufacturing industry, most of the work is still accomplished by humans and only about 3% (※1) is conducted by robots? In order to deploy robots in manufacturing processes, it is necessary to instruct them beforehand through the process of programming. An engineer with expertise in robot programming specifies each movement, and only then can it be […]
It is an open platform, so anyone can take on the challenge of robot development if they have the initiative. Where there are smartphones, there are applications. With Apple and Google having made their app stores available to the general public, engineers and third-party vendors from all over the world have entered the race of developing smartphone apps. There was even a term, “app millionaire”, to describe the people who can earn millions by sales of apps entirely based on the quality of their apps, without the knowledge of hardware design. These apps make the smartphones as the platform more attractive, generating an increase in the number of smartphone users, which in turn […]
What lies ahead in the evolution of humanoid robots? Humanoid robots are robots with a human form. Robots such as Astro Boy have been familiar from Japanese manga and anime worlds since long ago, but in the real world, little progress had been made in putting them into practical use due to difficulties with control and other issues. When he started running the story of Astro Boy in 1951, Osamu Tezuka set the birth of his creation Astro Boy as April 7, 2003. More than 10 years has already passed since that date, with no appearance of Astro Boy in the real world. However, in recent years, with extraordinary progress […]
Robots packed your boxed lunch!? When you hear the word “robot,” what comes to your mind? Did you think of Softbank’s human-shaped robot, Pepper, or Sony’s pet robot, AIBO? Or maybe even the cleaning robots, mainly represented by iRobot’s Roomba? With Japan’s trend in declining birthrate and rising aging population, expectations toward livelihood support robots are increasing. In recent years, we often see robots even in our daily lives. Because of that, it may seem that robots have started to develop just recently. However, robots have actually been playing an indispensable role in the industrial world for a long time. These robots are called “industrial robots”. Industrial robots were introduced […]