Re: Re: Workers abandon Japan nuclear reactor due to radia...

[Guest guest]

I got your point. The Japanese seem to be striving for humanoid realism rather than functionality. Personally I find the very human-looking robots to be creepy and rather dangerous. I would prefer less human looking machines that were capable at their jobs.

There was an old Tom Selleck movie called "Runaway." In that movie he owned a home robot that was a big boxing thing (probably not very efficient in practice) that is the design I would favor. Its something you would never confuse as human but it could handle the housework for you all the same.

I agree with you that what is needed at the reactor and most other industrial sites is less a humanoid that a rugged tracked type machine with a couple of fine manipulator arms and maybe a third heavy-lifting arm. That way it could heft a heavy coupling into place then use the fine control arms to connect wires or bolts or whatever.

My point was that the Japanese robot you see in the media are closer relatives to the animatronics you see at Disney World than to practical working robots.