Cyberdyne, a Japanese exoskeleton startup, is building a city of robots that will feature robot helpers that work in the medical, industrial and agricultural industries.
Called Cybernic City, the development will sit on 84,057 square meters of land in Tsukuba city, which Cyberdyne bought in 2015 for $54.68 million. Cybernic City will include homes for the elderly, a research center, hospital, plaza and park. The idea is to develop robots to help with everyday living.
“There are many ways we could deploy the technology. For example, we could partner with commercial facilities to have robots ship products or they could help aging farmers grow their crops,” said Cyberdyne Inc. President Yoshiyuki Sankai, who also is a professor at the University of Tsukuba. “We want to make visible progress in the project by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the future, we would like to make this site into the world’s state-of-the-art model for placing robots in society, where people can come and see the future.”
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No word on how much a home in Cybernic City will cost, but if the development comes to fruition, it will be a great social examination of how humans interact and live with robots.
In November 2015, Cyberdyne’s HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) exoskeleton was officially recognized by the Japanese government as a medical device and was approved for insurance coverage. HAL has been proven to assist with lower-limb rehabilitation of people with progressive neuromuscular diseases. These conditions include spinal muscular atrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease and muscular dystrophy. This will benefit some 3,400 patients across the country. The suits provide extra power for limb movements.
[Source] The Asahi Shimbum