YASKAWA BUSHIDO PROJECT

June 5, 2015 2:36 PM

industrial robot vs sword master (SLYT)
posted by OverlappingElvis (46 comments total)

Wow.
How could this go wrong, right?
It can't.
It can't possibly.
posted by Adridne at 2:42 PM on June 5, 2015 [5 favorites]

"Sure, you're good standing in one spot, let's see you swing the sword and move"
posted by greenhornet at 2:47 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Making robot cheetah/scythe-walking potatoes wasn't enough? Science, you go too far!
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:50 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Sure, you're good standing in one spot, let's see you swing the sword and move"

Plus I'm guessing the robot has no optical sensors and has to be programmed where specifically to cut the oranges and pea pods.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:50 PM on June 5, 2015

First, the robot loses points for messiness and a lack of style. Cutting things with swords is artistry, you mechanical butcher!

Also, you teach a robot to cut beans, and soon it will be cutting human beings, mark my words. Robots don't listen too carefully, in my opinion.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:54 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

GARA GARA GARA

"What the fuck is that?"
posted by Artw at 2:55 PM on June 5, 2015

That was rather satisfying, much like the one that played table tennis last year :D
posted by LiteS at 3:09 PM on June 5, 2015

Take that pea pod!
This would be perfect for home defense.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:15 PM on June 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

I noted that whoever programmed the robot ensured it bowed lower than the swordsman.
posted by Neale at 3:30 PM on June 5, 2015 [6 favorites]

The robot's kimono pattern and obi were also hopelessly out of date. It would be openly mocked in the tea houses and pleasure quarters of the Yoshiwara.

Bumpkin.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:45 PM on June 5, 2015 [12 favorites]

I'm just glad they didn't go head-to-head.
I was expecting something like the table tennis video, similarly [unrealistically] choreographed.
...and I was just reading in the Neil Gaiman/Kazuo Ishiguro post about how samurai sword fights really happen.
posted by MtDewd at 4:00 PM on June 5, 2015

And that was the last time the Motoman MH24 bowed to a human...
posted by HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2015 [4 favorites]

Totally lacking proper zanshin.
posted by Samizdata at 4:51 PM on June 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

No good can come of this.
posted by Crankatator at 5:31 PM on June 5, 2015

Hey, guys. I just came back from the future and I want to reassure all of you that teaching robots these cool-ass samurai sword moves does not in any way backfire on the human race. Nope. No unintended consequences whatsoever. I just want all of my fellow humans to know that.
posted by mhum at 5:36 PM on June 5, 2015 [17 favorites]

mhum, could you type this in to the comments feild please

B09iS5

Cheers.
posted by Artw at 5:45 PM on June 5, 2015 [11 favorites]

I, for one, welcome our new samurai overlords.
posted by a halcyon day at 5:58 PM on June 5, 2015

So back in the day ('99ish), I used to work on industrial robotics. One of our large clients was a very large meat packer. A really fun thing to program was a fuzzy logic controller that navigated a circular blade down the back of a pig's spine. Basically the feel of bone and the feel of meat is pretty different torque wise... so by very quickly adjusting the pitch of the blade as you move it along the pig (think 6 degrees of freedom for the movement), you can actually figure out how to cause as little splinter as possible and simultaneously not totally destroy the meat.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:51 PM on June 5, 2015 [6 favorites]

welp thanks, Nanukthedog, I am never sleeping again
posted by sonic meat machine at 7:16 PM on June 5, 2015 [10 favorites]

I noticed that the robot had fewer targets for the 1000 cuts portion.

Apparently we can take it from behind!
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:32 PM on June 5, 2015

welp thanks, Nanukthedog, I am never sleeping again

sonic meat machine fears the tactile meat machine.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 7:46 PM on June 5, 2015 [5 favorites]

When cut across the neck, a sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say. I'd always hoped to cut someone like that someday, to hear that sound. But to have it happen by my own robot is ridiculous.
posted by maxsparber at 8:22 PM on June 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

I really want a comic series about a robot arm, wrapped in a worn Haori kimono jacket, carrying a fearsome blade, silently wandering the land.
posted by Grimgrin at 8:30 PM on June 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

I noticed they padded under the food for the horizontal cuts, probably more than a few takes were involved to get it to work. It would be far more effective if they had optical sensors tied into this.
posted by MikeWarot at 8:42 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

they seemed so pleased. is this something you would have to japanese to be pleased about?
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:59 PM on June 5, 2015

Instead of a tanto, that robot will need a plasma cutter to commit seppuku.
posted by 445supermag at 9:32 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Its kaishakunin just pulls the plug out of the wall.
posted by rifflesby at 9:39 PM on June 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

We made something alllllmost as sophisticated and deadly...
posted by moonmilk at 9:56 PM on June 5, 2015

Today, the meat and the machine bow to each other. But remember this when the Swordmasters of Ginaz must battle the cymeks to free humans from the thinking machines.
posted by bryon at 10:53 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'll only be truly impressed when the robot is defeated by an old master, and then retreats to meditate on a mountaintop until it reaches satori.
posted by happyroach at 12:50 AM on June 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

John Henry was a katana-driving man.
posted by stet at 1:07 AM on June 6, 2015 [4 favorites]

I like how it's Tachikoma blue.
posted by BinaryApe at 3:27 AM on June 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:38 AM on June 6, 2015

I really want a comic series about a robot arm, wrapped in a worn Haori kimono jacket, carrying a fearsome blade, silently wandering the land.


Pushing a baby carriage with a smaller robot arm in it?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:15 AM on June 6, 2015 [6 favorites]

Bad form. It never sheathed its blade.
posted by lordrunningclam at 4:47 AM on June 6, 2015

Pushing a baby carriage with a smaller robot arm in it?

Surely an old AV trolly.

Honestly, a nice shoulder bag with a laptop makes more sense, but it's not as photogenic.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:44 AM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

TheWhiteSkull: I was thinking a Roomba, but you definitely get the concept.
posted by Grimgrin at 7:47 AM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Surprisingly fun, even for someone who knows nothing and doesn't really have any interest in martial swordsmanship.

Although I get the same feeling as I did when I saw a documentary about (I think) Tesla's automated factory, where a highly skilled engineer was teaching a robot how to make a particular component. It felt to me as if he was losing something of his soul in the process, and I wasn't expecting that.
posted by Devonian at 8:47 AM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

OHenryPacey: they seemed so pleased. is this something you would have to japanese to be pleased about?

Speaking as someone who's not Japanese and is a fan of both robots and martial arts, no. No you do not.

Also this is the first time I've heard of the 1000-cuts endurance exercise, which is really impressive. And turns out the robot wasn't up against just any old random either.
posted by traveler_ at 9:43 AM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Grimgrin: "I really want a comic series about a robot arm, wrapped in a worn Haori kimono jacket, carrying a fearsome blade, silently wandering the land."

Has to be Hanzo steel though.
posted by Samizdata at 10:46 AM on June 6, 2015

I understand the feeling of loss, but I think it's wrong, nothing is lost when skills are taught, only gained. I feel like this video represents how far Japan is ahead of us in terms of accepting robotics. If you made this in the west the robot would have to lose, begrudging "nearly got me there, kiddo" type respect might be given to the robot, but definitely not this accept like an equal type respect.

We probably should start thinking about how we're going to mentally accept our coming robot overlords. Still, fuck the cheetah.
posted by fido~depravo at 1:14 PM on June 6, 2015

The thing is we've been talking about workforce decimation due to automation since the '70's. The problem is that it never happened. But only because we were too optimistic in our automation/robotic/programming skills.

The thing is, we are now actually reaching the point where we can do all this: driverless trucks and cars, completely automated hydroponic farms; I recently read about 'dark factories', where robots have been building components without humans ... and they have been doing it for over a decade, now.

Society in industrialised nations REALLY needs to figure out what to do about this in the next decade; basic income, birth control, entertainment. After 50 years it is finally happening and we are going to have to figure out what people who can really only do manual/physical labour (as in many non-thinky, non-finicky, automatable trades) are going to do.

And, yeah, the robot should have been fitted with a sheath/scabbard.
posted by MacD at 4:33 PM on June 6, 2015

Wow, that peapod.

This is very cool, but I do share the bittersweet sense of human mastery being devalued.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:40 PM on June 6, 2015

I understand the feeling of loss, but I think it's wrong, nothing is lost when skills are taught, only gained.

Question is, can that robot teach those skills to a human?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:43 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

how we're going to mentally accept our coming robot overlords. Still, fuck the cheetah

Well, that is one of the traditional ways to accept your new overlords…

That question has been in my mind lately also, MacD, and I think we're in a weird bind: there'll not be enough human labor for everyone to work to their full capacity, but there's too much scarcity (real and artificial) for everyone to accept simply living a more leisured life.
posted by hattifattener at 7:24 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

After 50 years it is finally happening and we are going to have to figure out what people who can really only do manual/physical labour (as in many non-thinky, non-finicky, automatable trades) are going to do.

Well, if robots have any say: think Soylent Green.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:12 PM on June 13, 2015