While this robot is designed to be used in hospitals to transport drugs, I think that something like this could be used in grocery stores to take care of your grocery shopping too.
The MKR-003 is the brainchild of AIST, Keio University, and Muratec. It can push and drag trolleys that weigh up to 66 lbs around. It can also automatically avoid obstacles while it navigates through life. The whole system is supposed to be pretty cheap to install, since the ‘bot relies on external sensors to guide it.
The biggest issue is that MKR-003 can only run for about an hour before needing a charge. That’s not very efficient. Still, this type of trolley robot is just one step away from all those automated ‘bots that we see scurrying about in Star Wars, so there’s hope yet that Japan will become the Death Star.
[via Robonable (JP) via Plastic Pals]
