Robots that act as waiters, receptionists, medical assistants or rescuers are some of the proposals aimed at reinventing the labor market at iREX 2025, the largest automation fair in the world that opened its doors in Japan this Wednesday with a special emphasis on physical Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Under the motto “Sustainable societies through robotics”, the exhibition started at the Tokyo Big Sight with a record number of 673 exhibitors and more than 3,300 booths, and until December 6, it will present everything from the most cutting-edge industrial machinery to robots intended for care, or even to collaborate in businesses facing the public with the best of their ‘smiles’.
“Meet your new friend,” announced the posters of the Japanese company Kawasaki. The Japanese company captured much of the attention with the presentation to the public of its new model ‘RHP Kaleido 9’, after ten years of development, a humanoid robot that will help carry out rescue tasks in natural disasters.
There was also no shortage of other company models such as Nyokkey, responsible for accompanying people in their daily tasks, or the Corleo quadruped, presented at the Osaka Universal Expo, which allows the driver to sit astride its ‘back’ to travel through areas inaccessible to conventional vehicles.
Beyond humanoid robots intended for companionship or care work, the fair remains particularly focused on machinery for industrial use and with a particular focus this year on physical AI.
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This technology seeks to give machines such as robots or vehicles the ability to perceive and interact with the world in real time, thanks to cameras, sensors and radars that allow them to even understand orders and instructions from people.
Fanuc, present at the fair and one of the archipelago’s largest manufacturers of industrial robots, closed an agreement this week with the American chip company Nvidia precisely to strengthen its capabilities in this field.
Both companies will collaborate to advance the implementation of physical AI in Fanuc’s industrial robots, the Japanese company explained, causing its shares to soar 6.51% yesterday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before correcting downwards 1.81% this Wednesday.
Indicative of the rapid aging and declining birth rate in the archipelago, the fair also had a large presence of machines dedicated to accompanying and caring for the country’s older population.
The well-known emotional robot Lovot, developed by the Japanese company Groove
The objective is to provide support and care services to a society that has a high rate of isolation, with 39.9% of its population admitting to feeling alone, and a record of single-person homes that are close to becoming the most common home model in the country, according to data from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare published this year.
With information from EFE
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