Japan leading the way in uses of robotics
that weld car parts at assembly plants.
To be sure, automation has eliminated a lot of routine work. But Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank, says productivity statistics over the past decade suggest it’s not been nearly so bad in manufacturing.
Even then, he said, substituting human labor with robots may not be a bad thing when there aren’t enough workers to do certain tasks, whether its picking strawberries, stocking shelves or caring for the elderly.
Although the United States isn’t aging as fast as Japan, America’s 65-and-over population already numbers more than 52 million, and that is projected to nearly double by 2060, when the elderly will make up about one out of four Americans.
At the same time, the United States — like Germany, South Korea and other advanced nations — faces a shrinking share of prime-aged workers over the next decade, including younger ones who might be best suited for the physical demands of elderly care.
Jobs at assisted-living facilities in the United States are projected to grow around 40% over the next decade, several times faster than the average. But labor shortages are also likely to abound, aggravated by low wages.
The median annual pay for home and personal care aides was $24,200 last year. Nursing assistants and orderlies working at residential care homes didn’t do much better, earning $28,530.
Pay and turnover are problems in Japan’s elder care industry, too.
Cyberdyne’s chief executive, Sankai, sees wider workforce applications for his products. His lumbar device, for example, could lower the risk of back injury for airport workers handling bags, and those laboring in agricultural fields. The average age of a Japanese farmer is 69.
But it’s healthcare that drives Cyberdyne and Sankai’s personal ambitions. As a 9-year-old, Sankai was captivated by Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel “I, Robot.” Soon after, he began tinkering and conducting experiments in rocket combustion and testing the movement of the legs of frogs with electrical stimulus.
Sankai, 61, has a doctorate in engineering from the University of Tsukuba, and Cyberdyne’s public offering in 2014 catapulted him into Forbes’ list of Japanese billionaires.
Cyberdyne has yet to make a profit, but some of the company’s robotic, or exoskeleton, suits have received regulatory approval in Japan, the European Union and the United States for use in treating certain medical conditions, such as strokes and spinal cord injuries.
Yoshiaki Kawasaki, 70, credits the company’s robotic limb suit for enabling his 68-year-old wife to walk again after a brain hemorrhage left her bedridden, her left leg paralyzed. He says she went for 90-minute treatments once or twice a week, and two months later was able to walk normally.
“She can also jog,” Kawasaki said, speaking from Cyberdyne’s testing studio at a shopping mall in Tsukuba, where he volunteers as a way of showing gratitude to the company.
Many others who have tried Cyberdyne products haven’t seen such breakthrough results, but Sankai believes his robotic suits could be effective in restoring motor functions in patients with such crippling diseases as muscular dystrophy and polio.
Hospitals and rehab centers in Italy, Malaysia and the Philippines, among other countries, are using Cyberdyne products. Others, including Saudi Arabia, are undertaking clinical trials with Cyberdyne robotics.
In the United States, Cyberdyne last year formed a joint venture with Brooks Rehabilitation Medical Group based in Jacksonville, Fla.