Robot Construction Worker Unveiled

Japanese developers have produced a robot intended for manual labouring, which they reckon will be ready to sell to the construction industry by 2010.

In a press event yesterday, the new HRP-3 Promet Mk II from Kawada Industries walked on a slippery floor, shrugged off a drenching under a shower and "used a screwdriver just as a human would."

The somewhat Cylon-like Promet-II is packed with advanced features, according to Kawada. Its articulated limbs and joints offer 30 degrees of freedom, and it has a "highly compact electrical system" which "allows it to forgo the commonly used 'backpack' used on other humanoid robots".

Perhaps best of all, the Promet-II's "cantilevered crotch joint" permits operations in "a confined area."

"We have made a leap towards creating a humanoid that works in a real environment," according to a joint statement from Kawada, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.