Ever wonder why robots always rebel against their human masters in every sci-fi movie in the history of the universe? It’s likely because we humans thought it would be cool to force them to handle highly dangerous radioactive materials and expect them not to notice that their joints are melting off. Per Innovation News Daily, scientists in Japan have designed a robot that is made specifically to “to run infection tests with dangerous influenza strains or work with radioactive lab materials” and thus minimize the risks to human researchers.
In a video about the robot posted by DigInfo News, Tohru Natsume, the team leader for the Biological Information Research Center at Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, says that his team often has “to do a lot of tests with radioactive materials” that “should… be done by robots.” The Mahoro lab android has arms complete with “seven joints that allow it to mimic elbow function alongside hands and arm movements,” Innovation News Daily reports. There’s no word yet on whether these realistic joint movements allow the robot to extend a middle finger to humans who order it to wade through large vats of toxic waste.
