If we decide to brand Japan as the Robotics headquarters of the world, we won’t be wrong! The Asian nation leads the world in the field of robotics with highly competitive research, development, and applied technologies. The stride isn’t ending anytime soon as a 60-foot (18-meter) “Gundam” robot that is capable of walking and moving its arms has reportedly been unveiled in Japan on Monday.

The robot, which is expected to help efforts to invigorate the country’s tourism sector which has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is modeled after a figure in “Mobile Suit Gundam,” a Japanese cartoon first launched in the late 1970s. The cartoon series is themed around the story of enormous battle robots piloted by humans. The series has given birth to several spin-offs as well as toys and has a worldwide following.

The huge robot will take the center stage on December 19 at the opening of the Gundam Factory, a tourist attraction located in the port city of Yokohama. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference that he hoped that the tourist attraction would lead to stimulating tourism demand and revitalizing local areas.

“Of course, we now have the coronavirus issue. I want people to tackle endeavors like this while making an effort to prevent the spread of infection,” he added.

Japan has consistently been at the forefront of deploying robots as part of our everyday life, especially during the present COVID 19 period. We have covered several stories of robots being deployed in Japan to perform duties ordinarily covered by humans like the deployment of robots in a professional Baseball game to act as cheerleaders in the absence of fans at the stadium. Much more recently, a shop in Japan rolled out a robot which helps enforce physical distancing and the use of facemasks inside the store. (via)

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