Robots that can diagnose diseases, play badminton and wow audiences with their musical skills are among the machines China hopes could revolutionise its economy, with visitors to a Beijing exhibition offered a glimpse of an automated future. The popular stars of this year’s World Robot Conference, which ended on Sunday, were undoubtedly the small, amateur-made “battle bots” which smashed, hammered and sawed their way through their opponents to a cacophony of cheers and shouts from a rapt audience. “With this robot, I can fully express myself. I love the sparks,” said Huang Hongsong, one of around a dozen Chinese youths whose creations went head-to-head. But while the battle bots are designed largely to entertain onlookers, China is deadly serious about riding the robotic wave with an eye on its economy. Cheap manufacturing propelled the populous giant to become the world’s second largest economy in just a few decades. But the country’s population is ageing, leaving it facing a double whammy of a worker shortage and increased labour costs as it gets wealthier.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/a-glimpse-of-automated-future/article24733407.ece