Every sci-fi movie that talks about the future has shown one thing constantly -- robots will work alongside humans.?
And even though years have passed, we haven¡¯t really seen robots, in reality, come close to the one sci-fi movies excite us about. However, it looks like Japan is finally bringing this revolution.
Family Mart -- a popular convenience store chain in Japan has teamed up with robotics brand Telexistence to use robots for helping their day to day activities. However, theserobots aren¡¯t fully AI-driven and autonomous. In fact, they¡¯re controlled by humans, roughly five miles away from Telexistence¡¯s HQ.
The robot possesses a wide range of motion and the human operator makes the seven feet tall robot move, pick up stuff and stack them in shelves around. The robot looks like an anthropomorphised cat with a robotic body and claws to hold on to things. There¡¯s just a 50 millisecond lag between the operator and the robot¡¯s action, which is really impressive.
The operator wears a VR headset as well as custom controllers to make the robot move the way it wants it to. Even though as of now the movement isn¡¯t as fast as a human¡¯s, the designers of the robots claim that this could allow one operator to control multiple robots -- something that could come in really handy for places like Tokyo where it lacks manpower for doing basic tasks.?
Moreover, an application like this could be really helpful in situations like the current pandemic where the actual staff is susceptible to risks working physically at the stores. Remote working experience with robots would help them stay employed and stay safe from the novel coronavirus too.
The company says in a statement, ¡°By introducing Model-T into stores, FamilyMart store staff will be able to work in multiple stores from a remote location, which will help solve challenges around labour shortage and help create new job opportunities. It will also lead to the reduction of human-to-human contact to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.¡±