A start-up and the parent of Uniqlo invented a robot with two arms that can pick up soft T-shirts and place them neatly in boxes.
There was only one job that robots could not do when Fast Retailing, the owner of Uniqlo, replaced 90% of its workers with robots at its flagship warehouse in Tokyo last year.
While it sounds easy, the ability to lift soft textiles has been a challenge for clumsy robotic arms. Add to this the need to sort through constantly changing seasonal clothes, in shades that are hard to distinguish and wrapped in various forms of packaging, and humans have always come out on top. Founded in 2011, Mujin develops robot motion and vision systems, such as 3-D cameras. After human operators set up a machine with Mujin controllers, it can see and move without having to be repeatedly programmed.
The jointly developed robot, which was made by Yaskawa Electric Corp., is already operating in Fast Retailing’s main warehouse in Tokyo, but Takino admitted that the robot was not able to handle all of the facility’s products, and that it needed further development.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Uniqlo founder Yanai resigns as SoftBank board member after 18 yearsJapan's SoftBank Group Corp said Tadashi Yanai, founder and CEO of...
Read more »
Sudan's Christians enjoy holiday amid hope for new freedomsSudanese Christians hope a short march marks a step toward religious freedom. Their March for Jesus tradition had been suspended under President Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown in April.
Read more »
Sudan's Christians enjoy holiday amid hope for new freedomsSudanese Christians hope a short march marks a step toward religious freedom. Their March for Jesus tradition had been suspended under President Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown in April.
Read more »
Uniqlo founder Yanai resigns as SoftBank board member after 18 yearsJapan's SoftBank Group Corp said Tadashi Yanai, founder and CEO of...
Read more »
The Future of Everything’s 10 Best Stories of 2019Religious robots, artificial mega waves, pricey lab grown meat and more of our favorite Future of Everything stories from the past 12 months
Read more »
'The Mandalorian' Finale Recap: Of Droids and MenWith an action-packed finale, 'The Mandalorian' smartly sets up season two. Alan Sepinwall's recap
Read more »