When I say humanoid construction robot, I do mean a biped, human form robot, not just a robotic arm. This robot, referred to as the Humanoid Robot HRP-5P Prototype, is the product of Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Institute (AIST), and it is here to take your job as a manual construction person and possibly, lord over us in distant future. Nah. I am just kidding. We are far from that – both taking over your job and lording over us.
Actually, the taking over the job is quite true but there is nothing sinister about it. As population ages and birth rate is not going anywhere north, Japan has to look to technology to staff shortage in labor and the Humanoid Robot HRP-5P Prototype is the result. Dear construction Sonny here can’t get to work like you can, yet, but it is a peek into the future of how robot can fill in humans’ shoes if there aren’t enough of us to do things like installing drywall.
It uses a combination of environment detection, object recognition and careful movement planning to install drywall autonomously. It is quite a feat, actually. But it did so in a rather slow and someway, overly too cautious manner. But it is a start. Even it does not seem to inherit the freedom of movement of an actual person, it does have some pretty amazing flexibility. I guess that kind of make up for the lack of natural movement of a real person.
According to official words, Humanoid Robot HRP-5P Prototype is a R&D platform “aiming for practical application of humanoid robot at large structure assembly site.” The idea is to have robots like the HRP-5P to take the place of human in labor work and also in hazardous work environment. Take a look at AIST’s Humanoid Robot HRP-5P Prototype in action in the short clip below.
Image: YouTube.
Source: Engadget.
