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Robot Meetup
FEATURE CHINA/FUTURE PUBLISHING VIA GETTY IMAGES
REALISTIC ROBOTS: A technician adjusts a humanoid robot exhibited at the World Robot Conference.
Last August, the annual World Robot Conference took place in Beijing, China. On display were more than 600 of the most advanced robots ever created. This included robots that could play basketball, pick fruit, perform surgery, and make coffee (complete with latte art)!
VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES (HEART); DU JIANPO/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES (CATS)
MECHANICAL HEARTBEAT: A model of a robotic artificial heart
PROGRAMMABLE PET: A child interacts with MarsCat, a robot designed to act like a real pet.
The most popular bots at the conference looked and acted like humans, down to their gestures and facial expressions. Robo-pets were another big hit. For example, the robotic MarsCat uses artificial intelligence to mimic lifelike behaviors, like playing, stretching, and purring when petted. Coming across these and other advanced robots in everyday life isn’t a far-off idea, says Li Boyang, co-founder of robotics company EX Robot. “Robots will be human partners in the future.”
The World Robot Conference also included industrial robots, which perform manufacturing work. This graph shows the number of industrial robots already at work in different countries in 2021 compared with the number of human employees. How do you think this graph will change over the next five years?
SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ROBOTICS