SpaceX launches caring robot, beer malt and 'mighty mice' to ISS
SpaceX launched a 3-ton shipment to the International Space Station on Thursday, including "mighty mice" for a muscle study, a robot sensitive to astronauts' emotions and a miniature version of a brewery's malt house. The Dragon capsule also is delivering holiday goodies for the six ...
Japanese carrier ANA opens world's first shop equipped with avatar robots
Japanese airline ANA Holdings Inc. opened Thursday what it says is the world's first store where customers can shop remotely through an avatar. The robots, standing 1.5 meters tall, will be employed at the avatar-in store through Dec. 24 in a shopping mall in Tokyo's ...
JR East's new Takanawa Gateway Station to feature robot guide and unstaffed convenience store
East Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday a robotic guide utilizing artificial intelligence and an unstaffed convenience store will feature at a new station slated to open in Tokyo in April 2020. JR East hopes to make Takanawa Gateway Station on the Yamanote Line a model ...
Historical evidence shows that labor-replacing technological innovation does not lead to long-term changes in employment and unemployment rates in industrial countries.
Labor shortages in Japan's construction sector provide unexpected economic boost
As Japan's construction firms are squeezed by the tightest labor market since the 1970s and a rapidly aging population, they are pouring investment into technology — and providing unexpected support to an economy reeling from the bitter U.S.-China trade war. The industry sees artificial intelligence ...
Limbless writer Hirotada Ototake blazes trail of hope with artificial leg project
Hirotada Ototake, a writer born without arms and legs who is best known for his 1998 memoir "No One's Perfect," has embarked on a project to develop electrically operated "robot" legs that will enable him and others like him to walk. The 43-year-old Ototake, who ...
Toward 'Blade Runner': Future robots will look and think like us, Japanese android maker predicts
Set in 2019, cult '80s movie "Blade Runner" envisaged a neon-stained landscape of bionic replicants genetically engineered to look just like humans. So far that has failed to materialize, but at a secretive research institute in western Japan, wild-haired roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro is fine-tuning technology ...
Robot wolves and bionic suits might just save Japan
The nation's demographic decline has created an opening for the technology sector.
How AI and robots can lead us to utopia
AI could conceivably eliminate the need for human labor in production and allow people to immerse themselves in intellectual activities.
U.K. report calls for learning from Japan on robots and automation
A U.K. parliamentary committee has released a report that highlights industrial automation in Japan, calling on the government to promote automation in British industries. Japan "has a long history of automation and is home to major robotics manufacturers," the House of Commons Business, Energy and ...
Annual investments in robots rose to world record $16.5 billion in 2018
Robot shipments are expected to jump 39 percent from 2018 to 2022 from a record annual sales level of $16.5 billion last year, according to the World Robotics report. More than a third of global installations are in China and the top five countries — ...
Fukushima Prefecture sets sights on flying cars to boost recovery and local industry
The Fukushima Prefectural Government is leading a collaborative effort involving companies from different industries and a robotics testing field to invent a flying car. In early August, the research center at the test field began accepting applications for four additional companies. The prefecture is focusing ...
