“Excuse me, coming through,” a four-wheeled robot chirps as it dodges pedestrians on a street outside Tokyo, part of an experiment businesses hope will tackle labor shortages and rural isolation.
From April, revised traffic laws are to allow self-driving delivery robots to navigate streets across Japan.
Proponents hope the machines could eventually help elderly people in depopulated rural areas gain access to goods, while also addressing a shortage of delivery workers in a country with chronic labor shortages.
Photo: AFP
However, there are challenges to overcome, including safety concerns, said Hisashi Taniguchi, president of Tokyo-based robotics firm ZMP Inc.
“They are still newcomers in human society, so it is natural they’re seen with a bit of discomfort,” he said. “The robots would not be operating entirely alone, with humans monitoring remotely and able to intervene.”
It is important the robots “are humble and lovable” to inspire confidence, Taniguchi said.
Photo: AFP
ZMP has partnered with behemoths such as Japan Post Holdings Co in its trials of delivery robots in Tokyo.
Its “DeliRo” robot aims to look charming, and features big, expressive eyes that can be made teary if pedestrians block its way.
“Every kid around here knows its name,” he said.
There is a serious purpose behind the cuteness.
Japan has one of the world’s oldest populations, with nearly 30 percent of its citizens over the age of 65. Many live in depopulated rural areas that lack easy access to daily necessities.
Labor shortages in its cities and new rules limiting overtime for truck drivers also make it difficult for businesses to keep up with COVID-19 related e-commerce and delivery demands.
“The shortage of workers in transport will be a challenge in the future,” said Dai Fujikawa, and engineer at electronics giant Panasonic Corp, which is trialing delivery robots in Tokyo and nearby Fujisawa.
“I hope our robots will be used to take over where needed and help ease the labor crunch,” he said.
Regulations set a maximum speed of 6kph, meaning the “chances of severe injury in the event of a collision are relatively small,” said Yutaka Uchimura, a professor of robotic engineering at Shibaura Institute of Technology.
If a robot “moves off the sidewalk and collides with a car due to some discrepancy between the preinstalled location data and the actual environment, that would be extremely worrying,” he said.
Panasonic said its “Hakobo” robot can judge autonomously when to turn, as well as detect obstacles, such as construction and approaching bikes, and stop.
One person at the Fujisawa control center simultaneously monitors four robots via cameras and is automatically alerted whenever their robotic charges are stuck or stopped by obstacles, Fujikawa said.
Humans would intervene in such cases, as well as in high-risk areas such as junctions.
Hakobo is programmed to capture and send real-time images of traffic lights to operators and await instructions.
Test runs have so far ranged from delivering medicine and food to Fujisawa residents to peddling snacks in Tokyo with disarming patter such as: “Another cold day, isn’t it? How about some hot drinks?”
Authorities do not believe Japanese streets are soon to be teeming with robots, given the pressure to protect human employment.
“We don’t expect drastic change right away, because there are jobs at stake,” said Hiroki Kanda, an official from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is promoting the technology.
“The spread of robots will be more of a gradual process, I think,” Kanda said.
Uchimura is aware of the technology’s limitations, and believes rolling the robots out in sparsely populated rural areas first would be safest.
However, firms say that demand in cities is likely to make urban deployment more commercially viable.
Taniguchi hopes to eventually see the machines operating everywhere.
“I think it would make people happy if, with better communication technology, these delivery robots can patrol a neighborhood or check on the safety of elderly people,” he said. “Japan loves robots.”
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS