Coming Soon — Cyborg Farmers

palegray.net writes Robots.net covers an article about robotic exoskeletons for Japanese farmers. These exoskeletons would provide increased strength and support for manual labor intensive tasks. More information can also be found at robots-dreams.com. 'The robotic suit relies on ultrasonic motors along with various sensors and wireless networking gear. [...] The mass-produced version of the suit is expected to weigh in at 8 kilograms and cost about 200,000 yen.'"

Comments

Wait a second.

[The_mad_linguist]

I thought the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture wasn't in charge of Gundam.

Nifty advances

[jbeaupre]

Not the first time Japanese agriculture spins out some interesting stuff. Check out their UAV helicopters: http://www.gizmag.com/go/2440/.

¥200,000 = $1834.55

[r_jensen11]

Something about this sounds fishy.... I find it hard to believe that it would cost less than $2,000 to turn in to RoboCop.

Re:¥200,000 = $1834.55

[moderatorrater]

I find it hard to believe that it would cost less than $2,000 to turn in to RoboCop You're leaving out the cost of weapons.

Re:¥200,000 = $1834.55

[Sandbags]

Well, it's not really a robotic suit, it's a robotic "assist" suit. It doesn't do anything by itself, it's just a few servos with some quality sensors attached and calibtrated to the wearers movement. It helps prevent fatigue by helping the farmer balance, stand and squat, and remain bent over for long periods of time.

the software behind it isn't anything radical, and since then motors don't apply force, just resistance, most of the work is done with very little power. (power is needed to turn on and off the motor, but not to actually move limbs, so it;s kind of like assisted breaking, or power steering, but for the body.)

It's a lot more simple than people think to make it out. Many of the componenets are slight upgrades to common hobby gear... the sensors are where the real magic is, allowing the suit to move fluidly with the wearer and sense when to support and when to assist. Other than that, it's not more than a fancy mechanical brace. $2000 USD is completely beievable.

Also, misprint in the article states 8KG. It's 18KG (about 40 lbs).

Re:¥200,000 = $1834.55

[CrashPoint]

Maybe he means the British RoboCop?

Re:¥200,000 = $1834.55

[veganboyjosh]

Maybe they are trying to get these to as many people as possible

Coming soon: The OEPC project...?

Get away from her...

[show me altoids]

you Bitch!!

Re:WTF are "Ultrasonic Motors?"

[Arthur B.]

Apparently not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_motor

Re:WTF are "Ultrasonic Motors?"

[jbeaupre]

Check out this crazy concept: Type "Ultrasonic motor" into this new fangled search site called Google. It pointed me to this free, (seriously: it's free!) encyclopedia called Wikipedia. The link talked all about ultrasonic motors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_motor. Seems they are commonly used in cameras. I bet other links would give even more information.

Re:BS

[palegray.net]

The Chinese were using rockets for celebrations long before they thought to fire them at each other in wartime.

I hope...

[tgd]

I hope I wasn't really the ONLY one whose first thought was "well that pretty much decides the whole illegal immigrant discussion once the migrant workers get cybernetic exoskeletons"...

I, for one, welcome our cybernetic illegal immigrant overlords.

um... I mean... I, para uno, dan la bienvenida a nuestros overlords inmigrantes ilegales cibernéticos.

(thanks babelfish)

Re:I hope...

[Fx.Dr]

um... I mean... I, para uno, dan la bienvenida a nuestros overlords inmigrantes ilegales cibernéticos. (thanks babelfish)

The last time I heard someone used Babelfish, it was in reference to some manner of diplomatic incident.

Seeing as how Japanese cyborgs are involved, I feel you just opened up a whole can of worms. Good going, man. Good going.

Re:I hope...

[thebdj]

You mean, The 6 Million Peso Man?

Re:I hope...

[greeze]

I, para uno, dan la bienvenida a nuestros overlords inmigrantes ilegales cibernéticos. I, for one, cybernetic illegal immigrants give to the welcome to ours overlords.

(thanks, babelfish)

Robot *what*?

[jesdynf]

Japanese farmers driving exoskeletons?

Don't I seem to recall something else Japanese farmers are famous for?

Oh, that's right. Ninjas.

Nothing but awesome can come from this.

Re:BS

[asuffield]

Also, at $1800 per, your not going to see people investing in these when they can just hire some cheap child labor.

What country do you think Japan is in?

This is not China or India. They do not have "cheap child labour". This is the country with the highest per-capita wages in the world. This is where labour is at its most expensive. This is also the country where children go to school 10 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, from the age when they can hold a pencil until they go to university. There's no child labour at all, let alone cheap.

Rice-planters Better Than Rice Lifters

[writerjosh]

While this suit is totally cool, I think bigger, mass-production robots like this rice-planting robot are far more practical. The robot suit is indeed a technological breakthrough, but I think robots that can help more than one person at a time are far more valuable. Or, check out these weed-killers.

Robots aren't strong

[CastrTroy]

Maybe it's just me, but most robots I've seen aren't that strong. Most can be outdone pretty easily by a human the is in good shape. There are some strong robots, but they are extremely large, and not the kind that could be worked into a suit that would be worn by a human. Also, what advantage does this offer over typical farm machinery that isn't in a human exoskeleton form factor?

Re:Before anyone else can say it...

[jav1231]

No, they're equipped with testicles and yes Japanese schoolgirls will flee!

Re:Tractors

[asuffield]

In America these are called tractors.

In America they grow mostly maize and wheat, which can be easily automated by dragging heavy machinery across the top of the soil. In Japan they grow mostly fruit and vegetables, which have to be carefully picked from the plants. Tractors are just not that useful to them, which is why they don't really use them. Harvesting is mostly done by hand because the land of genius automation has not been able to find a way to automate it - until now (maybe).

Here's a hint at the problems they have to deal with: the Japanese radish (one of their staple vegetables) is a foot long and about three inches wide. It takes a lot of careful pulling to get something that size out of the ground without damaging it.

Sounds familiar

[bograt]

I watched a movie about this recently. "RoboCrop", I think it was called.

A sad testiment to Japan's birth rate.

[Cathoderoytube]

This is a sure sign things are getting bad in Japan. Back in the day farmers would just have a bunch of children and they'd help out on the farm. So now instead of rutting their wives and getting some help the old fashioned way Farmers have to turn to cyborg technology.

It's all well and good for the current generation but who'll tend the fields when the Cyborg's dead and buried?

Re:WTF are "Ultrasonic Motors?"

[pragma_x]

Thanks for the info, but I found that article to be impenetrable. So I went surfing for a more remedial explaination:

A decent explaination about how these things work.
http://www.tky.3web.ne.jp/~usrmotor/English/html/principlesandStructure.html

NASA JPL image of a robot arm assembly using a ultrasonic rotor (should help with visualizing what TFA is about)
http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/tasks/taskImage.cfm?TaskID=140&tdaID=800006&Image=319

NASA JPL article with a good illustration of the "travelling wave" phenomenon that makes these work.
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/images_videos/iv_pages/Yosi_Ultrasonic_Motor1.html

Re:Before anyone else can say it...

[TheRaven64]

The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam

Re:Before anyone else can say it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Then those kids would REALLY get off your lawn.

Better Check My Policy.

[hotwatermusic]

Must make sure my Old Glory Insurance is current.

Re:Just great!

[pragma_x]

Wonder when they will start making them look like Daleks.

Good point. With handicap ramps now the norm in building construction, they'll be quite practical too.

...

Wanted: apartment in multi-story building with no elevator. Close proximity to gun store preferred.

And in other currencies...

[Half-pint HAL]

In other major currencies 200 000 yen is approximately

950 UK Pounds
1250 Euros
44850 Rubles
72300 Rupees
13400 Yuan
20150 Mexican Pesos

HAL.

Re:Tractors

[Hatta]

Try picking strawberries with a tractor. There's a lot of hand-picked produce out there still, and that's quite literally back breaking labor. Some sort of mechanical support could make farming a whole lot more humane. Of course in our economy, we have illegal immigrants to pick our fruit and nobody cares about their knees anyway.

much needed

[ILongForDarkness]

I'm not an expert in the region and growing of asian produce, however, when I was in Japan visiting a friend I was amazed at how low tech the farming is there something ca 1920 US. They were planting rice by hand. We were biking through rural areas and I noticed a lot of older people that were bent over at a near 90% angle on the side walks. I asked my friend what was wrong with them, and he said they were farmers who's backs have become deformed from bending over all the time.

The reason for this stupidity according to my friend: Japan (as admittedly a lot of countries do) has protectionist policies in place forcing rice and other crops to have to be produced in Japan. The cost of japanese rice versus the average is 7 times, but they have to produce it. Apparently it is cheaper to ruin the backs of people in a first world country then to risk not having control of your food supply - because you buy it from the close third world countries - in the advent of a war. Admittedly if I was like Japan and had crazies for neighbours (North Korea/China, government not the people) whom I recently pissed off by invading I might be worried about war preparedness as well.

Re:how long before....

[The_mad_linguist]

Yeah, don't anthropomorphize robots. They hate that.