DI S PATC H E S | INNOVATION AND ADVANCES
9. Assistive robotics
They can carry luggage, greet customers, and perform, shall we say, intimate bodily functions. They are assistive robots, often humanlike in appearance, and if current prognoses hold true, they will end up performing myriad tasks, ranging from the profane to the pleasurable with yet-to-be understood consequences and ethical dilemmas for humans. Such tasks range from flipping burgers and patrolling parking lots to helping care for the elderly. Indeed, even creative tasks may fall to robots. Famously weary of immigration for economic and cultural reasons, Japan appears especially eager to embrace “these immigrants from the future” as The Economist’s correspondent Oliver Morton calls them. Economic predictions, valued at up to $1.4 trillion by 2025, account for this welcoming attitude. Long a global leader in industrial robotics, Japan looks towards personalized robotics to maintain its competitiveness as it tries to defuse its ticking demographic time bomb. For years, deaths have outpaced births in Japan, where the number of births dropped below one million for the first time last year. Japan’s National Institute of
Population and Society Security Research predicts Japan’s current population of 127 million will drop nearly 40 million by 2065 — a development that ultimately means more retirees straining social services, fewer workers paying taxes and less consumption. As Scientific American reports, Japan’s automobile industry is already looking beyond autonomous vehicles towards developing personalized robots aiming to assist aging Japanese. This reorientation has already seen Honda’s 2014 introduction of ASIMO, a first-generation carebot. Experts expect more, as Japan invests heavily in this technology. Technology (including robotics) does, however, have a knack for over-promising and under-performing, something Japan acknowledges in its New Robot Strategy: “Despite rapid advancements of robots, some point out there is a huge limit in what robots can do as compared to what humans can do to recognize and cope with diverse situations and therefore we should not expect a dramatic leap in robotics in mid-term.” This said, Japan imagines nothing less than a complete re-engineering of its society towards what the report calls a “robot barrier-free society” in which humans and artificial humanoids would collaborate, if not co-exist.
ASIMO was Honda's first-generation carebot, introduced in 2014. Experts expect more as Japan is heavily investing in this technology.
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masses, customers will be able to produce their very own individualized product in a place of their choosing, including their own homes. Second, 3D printing is cheaper than standardized manufacturing. Whereas the standardized version relies on subtractive manufacturing — more material is used up during the production than what is produced and sold — 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing. Comparable to baking a cake, it places layers of material on top of one another to shape the final object. This process of addition rather than subtraction lowers the costs. It has also lower fixed costs — no need to build large assembly plants — and far lower shipping costs because it relies on digital delivery. Customers who want to produce any good can simply download the necessary blueprint. Marketing budgets will shrink significantly in an age of personalized production. Finally, 3D printing saves resources. It cuts down on waste during production, as well as packaging. In short, 3D printing frees manufacturing from current space and time limits. 3D printers are rapidly evolving, finding their way into military production, house construction and art. Companies are even using 3D printers to produce human organs.