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Read This from the Age 14/7

A robot army in danger of being terminated
Going into shutdown mode: One of the Motoman dual-arm robots operated by Yaskawa Electric. Photo: Reuters

July 14, 2009
Even the cyborgs are hit by job cuts, reports Hiroko Tabuchi.

THEY may be the most efficient workers in the world, but in the global downturn, they are having a tough time finding jobs.

Japan’s legions of robots, the world’s largest fleet of mechanised workers, are being stood down as the country suffers its deepest recession in more than a generation and consumers worldwide cut spending on cars and electronic gadgets.

At a large Yaskawa Electric factory on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, where robots once churned out more robots, a lone robotic worker with steely arms twisted and turned, is testing its motors for the day that new orders return. Its immobile co-workers stand silent in rows, many with arms frozen in mid-air.

They could be out of work for a long time. Japanese industrial production has plummeted almost 40 per cent, and with it the demand for robots.

Tighter finances are injecting a dose of reality into some of Japan’s more fantastical projects — like pet robots and cyborg receptionists.

Sony pulled the plug on its robot dog Aibo in 2006. Costing more than $US2000 ($A2590), it never broke into the mass market.

The $US300 i-Sobot from Takara Tomy, a toy robot that can recognise spoken words, was meant to break the price barrier. But with sales faltering in the past year, the company has no plans to release further versions after it clears out its inventory of about 3000.

“Japanese scientists grew up watching robot cartoons, so they all want to make two-legged companions,” said Kenji Hara, an analyst at research and marketing firm Seed Planning. “But are they realistic? Do consumers really want home-helper robots?”

Koji Toshima, president of Yaskawa, Japan’s largest maker of industrial robots, said the company had taken a “huge hammering”. Profits at the company plunged by two-thirds in the year ending March 20, and it predicts a loss this year.

Tetsuaki Ueda, an analyst at Fuji Keizai, expects the market to shrink by as much as 40 per cent this year. Investment in robots, he said, “has been the first to go as companies protect their human workers”.

While robots can be cheaper than flesh-and-blood workers over the long term, the upfront investment costs are much higher. In 2005, more than 370,000 robots worked at factories throughout Japan, about 40 per cent of the global total, representing 32 robots for every 1000 manufacturing employees.

A 2007 Government plan for technology policy called for a million industrial robots to be installed by 2025. But that will almost certainly not happen.

“The recession has set the robot industry back years,” Mr Ueda said.

NEW YORK TIMES