In order to put this robot into practical use, Panasonic has offered a price of 35,800 to 39,800 yen (about 327 to 363 US dollars) on the crowdfunding network kraudfandingovoy platform. In less than 7 hours, the product raised 10 million yen. Starting in March 2022, buyers will receive the product. The company is also considering bringing it to the mass market.
Why do these types of robots sell well? That is because aging and urbanization have led to more and more people living alone. Coupled with the spread of the new crown epidemic, some people have fallen into loneliness because they are far away from work and friends. But just using the saying "has a healing effect and can alleviate loneliness" cannot fully explain it.
There is a certain revelation implicit in the development intention. In the past, Professor Okada began to develop "weak chicken robots" that needed human assistance, such as trash can-type sweeping robots that could not pick up trash by themselves, and slow-moving robots that distributed tissues on the sidewalk. He has made 30 kinds of robots in total.
After experimenting with the above two robots, it was found that people would pick up the garbage by themselves, or take the initiative to move forward to pick up paper towels. They can't see the shadow of "powerful robots" that save mankind with super powerful power.
Professor Okada’s ideas have reached a certain level. He pointed out: "The better the robot, the more demanding it is and the more arrogant people become. But in the face of weak robots, people will have a caring and considerate psychology of others."
Now that weak chicken robots are popular, it is not so much refreshing, as it is because people's mood has changed a lot. There may be more people who are tolerant of others or willing to be altruistic. The super cute robot "LOVOT" developed by the start-up company "GROOVE X" engaged in robot development is also very popular. Company manager Lin Yao said that the purpose of developing this robot is to "make the owner more gentle."
In terms of relationships with others, the spread of the new crown epidemic has brought changes. Threatened by the virus, people really feel the difficulty of supporting social workers, and their willingness to be considerate to the people around them has increased sharply, hoping to care about the emotions of the people around them also to the objects. After all the previous mentality of relying on advanced technology has changed, the way people treat robots has also changed. This is not surprising, a robot that only obeys commands and orders can't catch people's hearts.
The rapid advancement of robotics and artificial intelligence technology is likely to make everyone resist cutting-edge technology for fear of threats to human dignity. The user's mentality will have an impact on the popularization of technology. If showing the weak and small can play a role in alleviating the contradiction between people and cutting-edge technology, it will become a new trend in technology research and development in th