West Japan Railway has unveiled a new humanoid robot designed for tasks like painting and gardening, despite its appearance resembling a malevolent robot from 1980s sci-fi. Starting this month, this machine, equipped with a crude head and coke-bottle eyes, will be used for maintenance work across the company’s network.
Mounted on a truck that can drive on rails, the robot is operated remotely by an individual in a cockpit who “sees” through the robot’s eyes via cameras. The robot boasts powerful limbs and hands with a vertical reach of 12 meters (40 feet) and can handle various attachments to carry objects up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds), paint with a brush, or operate a chainsaw.
The company highlights that this technology will help address worker shortages in aging Japan and reduce accidents, such as falls from heights and electric shocks.
“In the future, we hope to use machines for all kinds of maintenance operations of our infrastructure,” company president Kazuaki Hasegawa stated at a recent press conference, emphasizing that this initiative could serve as a case study for addressing labor shortages.
