Mr. Future

Osaka Museum of Creative Industries was host to a number of culinary robot wonders, but best among them had to be Toyo Riki’s Takoyaki-bot.  A rare treat in the states, Takoyaki is an intimidating but delicious junkfood of choice for Tokyo street food carts.

The robot chef prepared each octopus-ball fritter individually from scratch, mixing, pouring, turning, adding more batter at just the right moment. Finally it arranged the takoyaki on a plate, basting each one with sauce, and shaking on a bit of seaweed and fish flakes for good measure.

RobotWatch has a film of the robot in action here.

Link (via LiveScience)

Industrial robot giant Yaskawa Electric, along with the Mitsui Co. have developed the parcel sorting worker of the future.

The system’s two-armed Motoman-DIA10 robot is able to recognize and rapid-sort everything from boxes to clothing. It can easily match the thousand-parcels-an-hour speed of the dedicated human worker it’s been designed to replace assist.

For eager corporate job-seekers the world over, starting in the mail room may no longer be an option.

Link (via Pink Tentacle)