With the global population of senior citizens expected to increase dramatically over the next few decades, some Japanese researchers are looking towards robotics to develop partners for human care tasks.
RIKEN — a robotics firm based in Nagoya, Japan — recently announced the RI-MAN, a humanoid robot designed to assist the elderly. Standing a bit over five feet tall and weighing in at a tad over 200 pounds, the RI-MAN can gently lift and move an elderly patient, assisted in the endeavor by an extensive array of pressure sensors.
For more information check out the AFP story or visit the English RI-MAN site here, which also contains a few MPEG video clips worth a look. – [Jeff James]
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