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.

Comments

Re:Should of been built like the Terminator

[Locke2005]

It's programmed to detect people trying to upset it's balance, and then kick them in the balls. Hard. Sure, it falls over, but you'll never try that shit again, I guarantee ya!

or they could allow immigrants to work in Japan

[Anonymous Coward]

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)

Re:Humanoid Robots are great and all

[Yetihehe]

Dalek's don't navigate stairs. They level the building.