Japan: Robots deployed in convenience stores to cope with labour shortage

Robots are increasingly replacing humans in Japanese stores as the country faces an acute labour shortage due to its aging population. According to CNN, convenience store franchises such as FamilyMart and Lawson have replaced the human workforce with seven-feet tall robots that can perform several tasks including picking and shifting objects of different shapes and sizes. The franchises are reportedly looking to deploy robots across all stores by 2022. 

Read: Japan: 60-feet Tall Gundam Robot Takes Its First Steps During An 'early Test Walk': Watch

The robots deployed by these franchises are named Model-T and are developed by a Japanese start-up company Telexistence. The robots have wheels on their legs and are equipped with cameras, microphones, and sensors. As per the report, the robots are remote controlled and can be controlled by humans using virtual reality (VR) headsets. One of the representatives of Lawson told CNN that the robots can solve labour shortage as one person can remotely operate many machines at a time across several stores.

Read: AI Robots Serve Restaurant Customers In South Korea

Read: US Boston Dynamics Team Builds 'dog-like Robot' To Attend To COVID-19 Patients

Increase in machine use 

This comes as machine use across sectors have become suddenly popular with the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year. Hospitals in China, India, and several other countries deployed robots to limit the contact between patients and staff members. Those robots can check temperatures, clean floors, deliver foods to isolated COVID-19 patients. Singapore deployed four-legged robots in public parks to check on people if they are wearing face masks or not. While some European countries replaced bartenders with robots amid COVID-19 to avoid physical contact. 

Many Japanese restaurants had earlier deployed robots to serve food and take orders after the pandemic forced the sector to enforce several changes such as partitioning and installing disinfectants. 

Read: Scientists Develope Microrobots That Can Enter Human Veins 'someday'