Japanese Railway Unveils Terrifying ‘Giant Transformer’ Robot to Do Tough Jobs
A Japanese rail company has unveiled a Transformers-style robot worker to take over dangerous jobs for humans.
West Japan Rail Company showed off the gigantic robot on its Twitter. In one video, the robot can be seen using its “hands” to perform maintenance on a power line.
Fortunately, the robot is in no danger of going rogue and turning against humans. It has no artificial intelligence, but is instead remotely controlled by a human operator.
The operator controls it using a virtual reality (VR) headset that is hooked up to cameras in the robot’s head. Then, with two handles, the pilot is able to control the robot’s hands and arms.
(Image: @news_jrwest/Twitter)
The robot, also capable of lifting heavy loads, is still in the prototype stage before being used five times full time in 2024.
The companies behind it, Nippon Singal and Human Machinery Company, plan to create a series of “spin-off” robots capable of different tasks, from electrical maintenance to working at dangerous heights.
Robots are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are rapidly becoming a more regular presence in our lives.
Elon Musk plans to build an “army” of Tesla Optimus robots.
He believes they will one day be worth more than his electric vehicle company. The robot, first announced at a Tesla AI Day event last year, is a 5-foot-8-inch-tall humanoid designed to do jobs that humans can’t be bothered with.
Musk said the robot will have “profound implications for the economy” and is “intended to be user-friendly and navigate a world built for humans.”
However, some have their doubts. Technologist Raj Rajkumar said: “Is the ‘Tesla bot’ the next dream move to pump up the hype machine? I can safely say that it will be well over 10 years before a humanoid bot of any business on the planet can go to the store and get groceries for you.”