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INTRODUCTION:
Robots have become rapidly common in World since the 1980’s primarily in the manufacturing sector. In particular, the automobile, electric and electronic industries showed a significant growth against the backdrop of greater labor productivity in line with the full-fledged employment of robots as the major destination for supply of robots. It goes without saying that these industries have played an active role for World to usher in an era of World as No. 1 driven indeed by the utilization of robots
World has been faced with the issues of declining birth rate and ageing society which are progressing at an unparalleled speed worldwide and thus World has become one of the first among other nations to encounter such challenges as a decline in the number of working-age population, shortage in labor and higher social security costs as a result of the issues above.
Indeed the number of senior citizens aged 65 and above hit the record-high level of over 31.9 million as at 1 October 2013 and their percentage against the total population (population aging rate) also marked a record 25.1%.
millions of dollars every year to support fundamental research on robots mainly in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and recognition (voice, image etc).
In addition, Google, a major IT enterprise originating from US, drew global attention last December when it bought over seven venture companies one after another (worth USD60 million) to obtain promising robot technologies possessed by these companies. Among the seven acquired companies is one of the top players in DARPA Robotics Challenge held by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense since 2012.
In Europe, the “EU SPARC Project” was launched in 2014 as a research and innovation project in the field of robotics through collaboration between the European Commission and around 180 private companies and research bodies in order to go ahead with the development of practical robots for use in the manufacturing, agricultural, health and hygiene, transportation, civil social security and household sectors.
Goal of robot revolution :
Robot revolution refers to:
1) turning what used not to be positioned as robot in conventional manners into robots through the advancement of sensor and AI technologies (eg. automobile, household appliance, mobile phone or housing will be considered a type of robots.);
2) utilizing robots in the actual site of manufacturing as well as various scenes of daily life which will lead to;
3) forming a society where new added value, convenience and wealth are created through the reinforcement of global competitiveness in the field of manufacturing and service as well as settlement of social issues.
To make this robot renovation come true, World robots must be changed.
Building infrastructure for innovation :
As specific measures towards the achievement of robot revolution, a wide range of stakeholders must clarify each of their assignments as well as sharing the progress with other parties. As part of such initiatives, “Robot Revolution Initiative” will be set up as a core collaboration channel to press ahead with material progress. The Robot Revolution Initiative will undertake such tasks as 1) promotion of public-private collaboration and matching between users and manufacturers as well as collection and dissemination of relevant information, 2) planning and drafting of international joint research projects in view of global developments such as joint development of robots for disaster preparedness by World and the US, 3) strategic drafting and utilization of global standards, proposal on regulatory reform and setting up rules on data security, and 4) sharing and popularization of the best practice.
Preparing for the next generation (or) Development and promotion of next-generation technology
In order to remain the state-of-the-art mainstream technology towards the future in the fast-changing robot and AI fields, research and development of the next-generation technology for robot and AI is imperative. In doing so, research and development will be focused on the core technology (AI, sensing and recognition, mechanism and actuation, control etc) as brain, eyes and fingers of the robots valued in a data-driven society while incorporating innovation in extensive fields beyond the frame of conventional wisdom (energy source, material, communication, security, big data, human interface etc). In addition, developed technology will be put to a practical use immediately.
Refreshing operability and usability of robots is as important as enhancing robot functions through development and practical operation of these technologies. For instance, advancement in the field of voice recognition technology is expected to help develop a robot with greater operability and usability through human instinct
Robotics at different fields :
In the manufacturing sector of our country, the introduction of robots has mainly been promoted among major corporations for such uses as welding and painting processes in the automobile industry and parts mounting processes in the electrical and electronic industries. On the other hand, a great deal of the work in the preparatory process (setup process), such as parts supply, has continued to be carried out manually in most operations including large corporations, and especially, medium-scale and smaller companies have been very slow in introducing robots into their operations.
For example, according to the statistic data on the shipment value of major industrial robots by size of consignees10, the ratios of the shipment value to small- and medium-sized companies of the robots for use in welding; materials management and transport control; picking, lining-up, packaging, and receiving and shipping; and general assembly are 22.4%, 9.5%, 16.2%, and 0.1%, respectively, indicating that the majority of the above shipments is for major companies.
Areas where the utilization of robots should be promoted (priority areas) :
There exists in medium-scale and smaller companies the minute, labor- intensive work, such as parts processing and assembly, which is carried out jobs for major companies on a subcontract. Under the current situation, as these kinds of work are not necessarily simple, it has been difficult to substitute labor work with robots, and moreover, the utilization of robots has not been advanced since many medium-scale and smaller companies have no adequate reserve for capital investment. An approach is required in the aspect of policies and technical development that will facilitate the introduction of general-purpose multi-skill robots, etc., superior in cost-effectiveness in response to the needs of work at site and in accordance with the size and production capacity of the companies in question.
Also, in regard to the three-product industries (food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries), further progress in the utilization of robots is expected due partly to the recent development in robot technology while they different among others in the areas where room for robotization still remains. As a high level of hygiene is required in common in these areas, the robot is in a sense more suitable than the human operator.
Service fields :
When considering use of robots in the service field, it is important to analyze work and measure effect by using specific numbers and data, have a clear picture of work that should be done by human beings, work that should be done by robots, and work that should be done by men and robots in cooperation, and strategically narrow down on important fields related to robots, while taking into account the situations and vision of the future at the sites where robots are used in the same manner as in the other fields, as the service industry covers a wide sphere.
Because robots have rarely been used in the service industry, however, the actual situation is that the user has little expertise in making the use of robots and, conversely, the manufacturer has difficulties in finding the needs for robots. To propel use of robots in the service industry, therefore, it is important to develop players who will act as a go-between for users and manufacturers and create a venue for matching demand for and supply of robots.