back to article Terrifying farm mechanoid plan for Japan

In a further outre twist, the budding Japanese robot'n' exoskeleton industry plans to move into a new sector. Researchers in the land of the Rising Sun have exhibited a mighty powered suit which could see increasingly elderly farmers - lifespans prolonged indefinitely perhaps, by advancing medical technology - striding across …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Untitled

    Japan like most modern nations has a big problem in the country side, where young people leave for the cities leaving only older people to tend to the land. At least there making technology that may help the farmers, unlike here in Britain.

  2. 4a$$Monkey

    Disappointing photo

    I was hoping for Aliens type cargo loader complete with blowtorch and optional minigun. Still early days...

  3. Mike Norris
    Unhappy

    Aliens?

    I was envisioning more of a strap on JCB type of thing like the one from the cargo hold in Aliens rather than the rather puny one featured in the news article...

  4. Sam

    Been done (sort of)

    Didn't a certain Ms. Ripley drive one of these things (called a powerloader?) in Aliens?

  5. Andrew Cooper
    Coat

    "strap-on robot suit"

    too easy

  6. jai

    big green lizard vs the mechanoid farmers

    "It's going to take more than a few hastily reprogrammed robot butlers to deal with them."

    come back Godzilla, all is forgiven......

  7. System 10 from Navarone
    Happy

    ...most amusing!

    I think French farmers ought to consider the use of these performance enhancing suits during their next riot - I seem to remember a French farmer trying to throw a sheep at the police during a confrontation at the docks once (something to do with British imports I think). It didn't go very far (more of a drop really) - I scored it at 8 for originality but only 0 for effectiveness.

  8. Robert Harrison
    Coat

    Cool

    Bring on the 'loader' suit out of Aliens. I've always wanted one of those, for farming purposes obviously...

  9. Sweep

    radish

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/nachosan/3588274/in/set-16044/

  10. Karl Lattimer

    AVP: the game

    anyone who played Aliens vs. Predator will fondly remember the triumph to be had when playing a death match as the horrifically handicapped marine only to stumble across ALICE...

    ALICE was a modified powerloader, equip with many handy tools to even out balance between the invisible predator or the nails aliens.

  11. Steve
    Coat

    Low batteries?

    Just when you have 200kg of rice above your head ready to put on top of a pile...

    Wile E. Coyote, anyone?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well

    I for one welcome Mecha-Farmerzilla.

    He can help with that pesky giant dinosaur/moth problem that I've been having recently.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Even older news than that...

    ...the robotic power-loading exoskeleton was first devised by the famed British inventor, Mr. Wallace Park, as described in that classic documentary film, "The Wrong Trousers".

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    and before that......

    Harry Harrison - Captive Universe (1969)

  15. Tawakalna
    Pirate

    robot suits?

    can it transform into an aeroplane or car?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    I, for one, welcome our new farming-based mechanised overlords...

    It's gotta be better than the idiot's we've got in power at the minute...

  17. Morely Dotes
    Alert

    Re: Even older news than that...

    The basic concept was first developed in Robert Anson Heinlein's "Waldo," published by Doubleday in 1942. Waldo only used the upper-body portion, as I recall, and developed anti-gravity to solve the problem of getting around under Earth's gravity.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I can't believe nobody has already said this

    Robocrop?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    OMG.........

    Have you read any of the other 'most popular' stories on this site?

    Why do they pr0n when they have news sites like this?!?

    10/10 for literative titles though!

  20. Benjamin Wright

    Legal Contracts with Robots

    As robots become more common, questions arise about how they will be regulated. One way to regulate them will be to form legally-binding contracts with their owners.

    http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/01/robot-surveillance-contracts.html

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  22. Ishkandar
    Coat

    Meanwhile, back at the farm....

    ...the frustrated farmers' wives will use strap-ons of another kind while the "boys" play with their toys !! The mind boggles at Robo.....

  23. Ishkandar
    Boffin

    Japanese radish

    They are called Daikon and they can average between two and three feet long and between 4-5 inches in diameter !!

    This is a deliberate separate post and has nothing whatsoever to do with the previous post !!

  24. Ishkandar

    *Correction*

    I should have said "circumference" not "diameter" !! I blame that on the wasabi bring tears to my eyes !!

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