It’s now cliché, the future of manual work will be mechanized and handled by robotics who will replace human workers. The construction industry has been facing this threat for years now, with some threats already realized, and now thanks to Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Institute (AIST), a new threat in the form of humanoid construction robot is imminent.
If the tech research has its way with its new HRP-5P humanoid bot, construction works will have less human labor, longer operating hours, and minimize operations costs, and reduce human casualties from work hazards.
The HRP-5P is a humanoid bot that does a number of construction tasks; though currently it is being pitched for situations when the job at hand is seriously dangerous or there is a staff shortage. The HRP-5P is fitted with a mix of object recognition, environment detection, and careful movement planning to install drywall. The bot hoists up boards and then fastens them into place using a screwdriver; all by itself.
Though the bot lacks the freedom of movement human being enjoy, but it more than makes up for it using numerous joints that flex to degrees no normal human can achieve. The bot also autocorrects for slips and can account for things and movements not in its field of view.
The bot is obviously far from commercial deployment as it is not yet quick in doing things and operates in what seems like being too careful. Nonetheless, it does promise a lot in building construction work and assembly line fields such as automobiles, aircraft, and ships production.
The technology might not be suitable for the rest of the world where the population is high, but for a country like Japan with an aging population and a dwindling birth rate. This technology might just be the needed solutions to the problem of lack of enough labor supply in the market.