Friendly delivery robots
The friendly delivery robots has a four-wheel robot chirps “Excuse me, coming through” as it avoids pedestrians on a roadway outside of Tokyo as part of an experiment that businesses believe will address rural isolation and labor shortages.
Self-driving delivery robots will be able to travel the streets of Japan beginning in April thanks to updated traffic regulations.
The devices’ proponents believe they may someday make it easier for elderly people in sparsely populated rural areas to get items while also addressing the persistent scarcity of delivery personnel in the nation.
Hisashi Taniguchi, head of robotics company ZMP in Tokyo, agrees that there are obstacles to be solved, such as safety issues. “They are still outsiders in human society, so it makes sense that people could perceive them uncomfortably,” he told AFP.
Humans will be able to intervene if necessary and will be able to observe the robots’ operations from a distance. According to Taniguchi, the robots must “be humble and endearing” in order to arouse trust.
ZMP has collaborated with industry titans like Japan Post Holdings in its delivery robot testing in Tokyo. Its “DeliRo” robot aspires for a cute appearance and has huge, expressive eyes that can become unhappy if people stand in its way. He said, “Every youngster around here knows its name.”
The cuteness serves a serious purpose.
With approximately 30 percent of its population over 65, Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world. Many people reside in sparsely populated rural areas with difficult access to basic essentials. Businesses find it challenging to meet the demands of e-commerce and delivery driven by the epidemic because to labor shortages in major cities and new regulations restricting overtime for truck drivers.
According to engineer Dai Fujikawa of electronics giant Panasonic, which is testing delivery robots in Tokyo and the adjacent Fujisawa, “the lack of personnel in the transport sector will be an issue in the future.” “I hope that where necessary, our robots will be deployed to take over and assist relieve the manpower shortage,” he told AFP. Similar robots are already in use in nations like the UK and China, but Japan is worried about everything from collisions to theft.
According to regulations, the top speed is limited to six kph (four mph), thus there are “very few chances of severe injury in the event of a collision,” according to Yutaka Uchimura, a robotic engineering professor at Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT).
But he added that it would be very concerning if a robot “moves off the sidewalk and collides with an automobile due to some mismatch between the pre-installed location data and the actual environment.” According to Panasonic, the “Hakobo” robot can decide for itself when to turn as well as recognize and avoid obstacles like oncoming cyclists and construction zones.
According to Panasonic’s Fujikawa, one person at the Fujisawa control center concurrently supervises four robots via cameras and is warned whenever their robotic charges get blocked or stopped by obstacles.
In such circumstances, as well as in high-risk locations like crossroads, humans will take action. Hakobo is set up to record and give operators real-time photographs of traffic signals as it waits for orders. To date, test runs have included everything from providing food and medicine to inhabitants of Fujisawa to selling snacks in Tokyo while using amiable speech patterns like: “Another chilly day, huh? How about a few hot beverages?”
Naoko Kamimura, a bystander, remarked after purchasing cough pills from Hakobo on a Tokyo street, “I believe it’s a terrific idea.
“Robots allow you to shop more casually, even though human store clerks may feel more reassuring. You can simply leave the store without feeling bad even if you don’t think anything is worth buying “She spoke.
Given the incentive to preserve human jobs, authorities do not anticipate that robots will soon be a common sight on Japanese streets. Because there are jobs at risk, “we don’t expect radical change right once,” said Hiroki Kanda, a representative of the commerce ministry supporting the technology.
“I believe that the expansion of robots will be more gradual.”
The limits of the technique are known to experts like Uchimura from SIT.
Even the most straightforward human duties might be challenging for robots to replicate, he claimed.
Uchimura thinks it would be safest to introduce the robots in sparsely populated rural areas first. Firms claim that the demand in cities will likely increase the commercial viability of urban deployment.
Taniguchi, the president of ZMP, aspires to someday see the machines in use worldwide.
If these delivery robots could police a neighborhood or check on the safety of old people, he added, “I think it would make people pleased.”
“Japan is a robot lover.”
This is a friendly robot that help people deliver they good to the they addresses, and the robot is one the japan product and a very good one. You can drop your comment on the comment section to tell us what you think about this robot.
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