The Japan Times Online :: 30-year robot project pitched

Researchers see tech windfalls in costly humanoid quest

Japanese researchers in robot technology are advocating a grand project, under which the government would spend 50 billion yen a year over three decades to develop a humanoid robot with the mental, physical and emotional capacity of a 5-year-old human.

The researchers believe the Atom Project, inspired by the popular robot animation series ‘Tetsuwan Atom’ by the late cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, would help promote scientific and technological advances in Japan, just like the U.S. Apollo Project, which not only succeeded in landing men on the moon but contributed to a broad range of technological breakthroughs.

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