Humanoid Robots Might Soon Be Working Alongside Humans in Factories

The unveiling of a humanoid robot, designed to work safely alongside its human co-workers on factory production lines took place in the U.S recently.

Priced at 22,000 dollars, Baxter will go on sale in October, the BBC reported.

Its makers, Rethink Robotics, said that it could apply common sense, adapt to its environment and be trained in less than 30 minutes to complete specific tasks, by workers without robotic expertise.

Currently factory robots tend to work separately to humans, often in cages.

Rodney Brooks, Rethink Robotics founder and former director of the MIT Computer and Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said that he hoped Baxter represented a "new concept in manufacturing."

"Roboticists have been successful in designing robots capable of superhuman speed and precision," he said.

"What's proven more difficult is inventing robots that can act as we do - in other words, that are able to inherently understand and adapt to their environment," he added.

According to the International Federation of Robotics there are now 1.1 million working robots in the world.

In car manufacture, about 80 percent of the production is completed by machines.

To teach Baxter a new job, a human guides its arms to simulate the desired task, and presses a button to program in the pattern, the report said.

If the robot does not understand, it responds with a confused expression, it added.

Source: ANI