Slashdot Mirror
New HRP-4 Humanoid Robots From Japan To Go On Sale
An anonymous reader writes "Kawada Industries and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have unveiled their new humanoid robot, HRP-4. The new humanoid stands 151cm tall and is much thinner than its predecessors. For Japan, HRP-4 is another step forward in creating useful mechanical workers to deal with a forthcoming shortage in the labor force and care for an aging population. HRP-4's creators expect to start selling the robot to universities and other research institutions as early as January 2011 for a price tag of $300,000, which is not that bad for a humanoid."
The HRP-4s are a whole $100,000 cheaper than Willow Garage's PR2 (non-humanoid) robots, which became available earlier this month. The difference really adds up when building your robot army. Ron Moore could not be reached for comment.
On the whole, I think I'd rather hire an au pair girl.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
So they have the HERP-4, where is the DERP-4?
$300K would buy a lot of RealDolls...
Hm.
Trolling is a art,
But the words, "Exterminate! Exterminate!" evoke a much more visceral reaction from a robot that looks like a garbage can on wheels that one standing on 2 legs.
As such, the Willow Garage PR2 and similar successors will be the constituents of my invasion force.
Sincerely
--Davros
Chi!
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
That would make a lousy sexbot. Come on, Japan, we expected much better than that of you! On the plus side, can it scrub toilets?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
If these robots are going to be caring for old people, what will prevent them from stealing old people's medicine?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Combine the HRP-4 and a real doll and you could make billions!
Anyone else felt a weird evil feeling when you read "building your robot army"?
Pretty awesome but would of been more ground breaking if the modeled it after the T-800 or T-101 or whatever. The whole time I was watching it I was wondering what would happen if someone just came up and pushed it really hard. Wonder if it would be able to compensate?
If it isn't broke, tinker with it till it is!
This would be real impressive if the video showed the robot actually doing real work.
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
. . . you can program it to clean out its own orifices.
I mean, yeeech, think about it.
Or better yet, let's all don't think about it. It's almost lunchtime.
I heard its software is field upgradable without user intervention and works with other USR units to accomplish really big tasks.
For some reason the brochure doesn't say what that really big task is...
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Can it dance? Is there a reward offered for the first team that successfully programs it to do "The Robot"? Will FOX be putting out a new reality show titled "So You Think Your Robot Can Dance"? Inquiring minds want to know!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The demo didn't address a few very important things about the robot (the only word I understood in that was 'watashi'). One, it showed it can move its hands but it didn't hold anything, so that's a bit suspect. The other thing that big since its bipedal rather than wheeled is that is has to worry more about falling over. It showed off its nice balance, but can it get up by itself? So it's kind of cool, but the only work I can see it doing is showing off is fashion related.
Adding Afghanistan troops could cost $500000 per person - CNN.com http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/30/afghanistan.costs/index.html a few bullets, use your targets as food, (sorry 'fuel') and bob is your warlord. And people worry about the singularity... @ 300,000.00 it'll be just a factory away from running your own country. Imagine using a stream of these as a Denial Of Service attack on, ok nevermind, the future as the curse says, will be interesting, but not pleasant.
Somebody has a manufacturing cost problem.
This cost problem stalled robotics for years. Only in the last decade have research platform prices come down to even vaguely sane levels. Now, most universities with robotics programs have reasonable numbers of standard platforms running around, instead of just one or two hand-made units.
This thing needs to come down to $50K or so. The Aldebaran Nao, which is a decent research humanoid robot, tops out at EUR 12,000. The best Japanese hobbyist machines are in the $1K to $2K range. The only sensor that's still way overpriced is LIDAR, and there's no fundamental reason for that.
Hmmm,... I guess Japan could try to invent intelligent robots to help their decrepit population, OR they could relax their racist immigration policies and allow immigrants in from Asia...
I wonder which method has the best chance of working (actually I don't, it's fucking obvious to any non idiot)
but when I do, I DRP-4.
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
U.S. $ 1 million per troop.
Yours In Ashgabat,
K. Trout
What if it walks on a surface that is moving chaotically? What if something or someone collides with it or pushes it? Can it react instantly to such enexpected situations to keep its balance as well as a human can?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Great we finally have robot soldiers ready to export and the strongest Yen to Dollar exchange rate in 15 years...
Just 2 years ago you'd have had nearly 50% more buying power.
While certainly not cheap, why is the Japanese robot so much cheaper than what the American company is offering, especially when it seems to be more sophisticated?
I'd like to know what Japanese companies have figured out that Americans are incapable of. Whenever a Japanese company begins selling some fairly high technology to the public it ends up being substantially cheaper than what an American counterpart would have asked. Is it that much more expensive to run a business and manufacture something in the US? Are Americans simply more likely to overcharge? Whatever it is, it seems to be a recurring pattern. If it's a product from an American company, and it isn't cheap crap made in China, then you're going to pay through the nose for it.
An excellent robot platform would be upgradeable to better parts over time, so new arms/hands/legs/motion controls/battery units/cameras and other sensors could be installed and so more 'brains' could connect to it via a wireless network, then it would be up to the programs to provide this machine with more and more capabilities. Sure, it doesn't know your apartment and can't wash dishes right now, but give it a server with a good map of your place and add more software to 'teach' it to wash dishes, and there you have it.
You can't handle the truth.
I think that using robots instead of human beings to fight our wars just sets us up for a situation where 100% of the casualties of war will be civilians.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Bubble Gum Crisis, Bubble Gum Crash. Boomers.
'nuff said.
These already look about as capable as the droids in the Star Wars movie universe. Now they just need to be programmed to say 'roger roger.'
can it run Crysis?
I'd definitely pay 300k for a robot whose blue version looks like a scaled down Cobra Commander.
Do you think he sings the GI-Joe theme song?
For Japan, HRP-4 is another step forward in creating useful mechanical workers to deal with a forthcoming shortage in the labor force and care for an aging population. HRP-4's creators expect to start selling the robot to universities and other research institutions as early as January 2011 for a price tag of $300,000, which is not that bad for a humanoid."
The age of robot slavery starts. Theirs not ours.
I for one noticed in the demo video that there was another robot with a female head in the background on the right.
While industrial uses are probably limited, I wonder how many would pay out the $200,000 price tag for that one.
To the future of the Japanese sex industry
I'm gonna hold out until they release its canine robotic companion, the DRP-4.
include $sig;
1;
If the Robot does the dishes and the floors and etc., then neither you nor your lady have to do it, and thusly, get to spend more time exploring the various corners of your sexual identities.
This does, of course, require a ladyfriend, and this is, of course, slashdot, so perhaps I'm being overly optimistic.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I've been thinking robots would be a real problem starting in about 2020 based on current vision and manual dexterity systems progress.
Discussing this elsewhere (and told I was too pessimistic), I came across the following information.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2010/tc2010061_798891.htm
Soon, That Nearby Worker Might Be a Robot
Online retailer Diapers.com employs more than 350 of the robots in three warehouses, and is adding "hundreds per month," says Executive Vice-President Scott Hilton. Retailer Crate & Barrel has purchased Kiva robots to be installed in its Tracy (Calif.) distribution center in July. One reason Crate & Barrel and Diapers.com decided to use Kiva robots is that the robots can work in the dark, reducing carbon emissions and saving money on air-conditioning and lighting. ...
at El Camino Hospital in Silicon Valley, 19 robots fulfill a range of tasks, from delivering medication and food to taking out trash. ...
Hiring as many humans ... would have cost the hospital more than $1 million a year, says Ken King, vice-pr.... Leasing the robots from Aethon costs $350,000 a year, which helps the hospital contain costs and offer patients affordable health care, he says.
The Tug robots pull their weight, say hospital officials. Tugette, for example, rolls through El Camino Hospital's corridors making deliveries around the clock, opening doors, summoning elevators, and speaking politely with workers and patients.
--
So let's see.
* Two THIRDs cheaper than humans
* Works 24 hours a day
* Works in the dark
* Doesn't require air conditioning
* Some companies are employing "hundreds of them" with more on the way.
* Replaces humans who go into the warehouse and get things and who stock shelves.
* If you have any kind of SLA, it also basically never gets sick.
And that's NOW. Right now. Already happening- not 10 years from now.
It's going to be very difficult to adjust to this change in less than a generation- if it is even possible to adjust to it at all.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Japanese culture will go down in the history books as one of the most interesting and self-destructive cultures of all time. They're essentially destroying themselves (both literally with suicide and figuratively by not breeding enough to replace their population numbers) and seem to be in some kind of race to replace themselves with robots rather than suffer the indignity of opening their culture to outsiders. My wish is that the burakumin take to the streets and impose a cultural uprising that will set Japan back on a course toward healthy minds, equality, and some damn common-sense. If they wanted to throw animal blood on the attendees of Tokyo U that would be good too.
I know a lot of people think Japanese culture is really cool as I once did. You won't think it's so cool if you dig past the bright lights and anime to see the seriously f'd up stuff that goes on there. I would go as far as to say that they're culture is more depraved and sad than ours (US Urban North East-Cost).
I don't know how many years on this Earth I got left. I'm going to get real weird with it. - Frank Reynolds
The important lesson being if you are going to place a Slashvertisement, make sure your server has the bandwidth to handle all the traffic.
I guess once they've sold one of those $300,000 dollar babies, they'll be able to upgrade their hosting plan.
Are you implying that a western nation. such as the U.S. perhaps, is better off without people like me that make it a "cultural zoo?" DIAF please.
Japan has a history of disliking Koreans and the Chinese. They let everyone know in WW2. Although VERY much has changed in terms of their sentiments and superiority complex since then, I would NOT be surprised if those feelings are still lingering around in the form of odd immigration policies.
It's funny how many of my fellow right-leaning americans (yes I can tell you are one by your post) discount everything they disagree with as Left Wing. As if your opinion is a wall, and anything outside of your wall is a land populated by undesirables and kooks.
Actually Japanese are usually considered fairly racist... Against anyone not Japanese. They have sizable Korean and Chinese populations in their country that they actively discriminate against for instance (both are 'second class citizens'). Though even among themselves they still discriminate against a certain class of their own people, though they do have a law against discovering who is of that class (though it's badly worded and stops nothing).
It's also really really hard to get citizenship. I know of a few people who have married Japanese women and moved to Japan... Then spent the next 15 years gaining citizenship... They are considered one of the hardest countries to immigrate to in the world.
Combine that with long lifespans and a dwindling population growth (family size is often 1 or 2 at most), then toss in a whole generation with issues like NEATS and generally high unemployment as companies don't hire as many new workers (since the old ones often never retire)... And you may start to see why they are having issues...
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
our new HRP-4 overlords.
I don't need a humanoid robot. I've already got the humanoid that needs augmentation: myself. If I need another humanoid, I've got a wife. I need nonhumanoids for all the things my wife won't/can't do. What I really need is a robot chair that carries me around Jazzfest, defaulting to my preferred scheduled stages and food booths, then bars around New Orleans, while arranging the best meeting places with my friends. I need a chair that will take me up and down stairs, carrying groceries and stuff. Something in my garage that will load and unload my car (which should be a lot more robotic, like finding its own parking and doing basic errands without me), delivering the stuff to wherever in my house it goes. Take out the trash, to the curb, after separating the recycling. Make my bed, carry laundry from floor to hamper to washer to dryer, folding it back into the closets and drawers. Unload the dishwasher into the cabinets. Walk the dog.
Some of those tasks might best be done by a humanoid, since humans have done them adequately for so long. Really they mostly need hands and arms, but maybe not, and feet, but only because we've got steps, and probably something more like tank tracks which can deform on the roller axles to "walk" or something like it.
Having any or all of those tasks built into a single humanoid, or a team, is creepy. It's more a latent desire to enslave other humans than a desire to offload tasks to whatever just gets them done. Making them humanoid seems like a lot of extra work for just a fetish. So there's probably a market for AI "Real Doll" robots, but the stuff I don't want any part of doing should probably be a lot more abstract in form factor.
--
make install -not war
I'll hold out for a cyborg babe.
For the cost of one missile you could load several of these down with enough solid explosive and hand over a rifle or two an would be much more effective and directed. The only problem would be insertion. On the other side, why cant they make one taller than them?
What's wrong with a "cultural zoo"? You do realize there's no pure race or culture in the entire history of the world, right? You're just being racist/nationalist fighting against the tide of reality.
I read lots about the labor shortage in Japan. I lived there 9 years ago, and I visited again this past Spring.
What labor shortage? The lifetime jobs with benefits are a thing of the past. Many young people I met (35 or younger) were working two part time jobs and still living with their parents. It feels like Japanese companies don't want to pay the good wages of the prior generation, so they invent this labor shortage story.
Where's David Elsewhere when you need him? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAyTK6jF5o8
OK, I mean on a cultural level. On a personal level, I would be much happier if huge numbers of women from different cultures tried to wipe out my genetic code by having lots of sex with me.
"I call her 'Tugette,' " says Muniz, who works in hospital admissions. The voice is about the only feminine part of this robot, which was developed by Aethon as part of a product line called Tug, which automatically transports food, medicine, and lab samples around hospitals.
I should point out a previous slashdot story on pneumatic tubes and one of their uses in hospitals.
Using the Anybots device known as QB, for example, it's possible for a remote operator to roll up to a colleague and ask an impromptu question, replicating in some measure the unplanned conversations that occur in offices.
Ummm, about those TPC reports.
The lights in the tunnel.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
will they be able to vote?
Hmmm,... I guess Japan could try to invent intelligent robots to help their decrepit population, OR they could relax their racist immigration policies and allow immigrants in from Asia... I wonder which method has the best chance of working (actually I don't, it's fucking obvious to any non idiot)
Well, I don't think our immigration policies are particularly racist. We generally don't want immigrants regardless of their race or country of origin, period. Our strict immigration policies are necessary, IMO, to maintain our cultural identity and unique cultural values, and most of us like it that way.
If your country accepts immigrants from all over the world and take unfair advantage of their cheap labor under the hypocritical names of justice and freedom while they suffer tremendously from racism, that's fine with us. (I lived in the United States for 12 years and I know for a fact that racism against immigrants is rampant here.) But please, for Christ's sake, respect Japan's soverinty as an independent nation. You are being racist by calling us racist *just because* our values are different from yours.