文/新井健生（Tatsuo Arai，日本） 译/唐庆超

新井健生（Tatsuo Arai，日本），北京理工大学教授，日本大阪大学名誉教授。主要研究方向为微型机器人在生物学中的应用。

In recent years, the worldwide problem of aging has become more serious, and Japan is of no exception. Faced with a shrinking workforce of young adults, a decline in the number of newborns and an increasing number of aging population, what should people do?

Developing the magical function of the robot is an idea to solve the problem. How to make robots and how to use them will become imcreasingly important topics in the future. I will start by introducing the types of robots to lead you into a new world of robots step by step.

There are many types of robots with various uses. It is not easy to introduce them one by one.

The robot Atlas which looks as agile as the Monkey King, can easily surpass various obstacles by jumping. It has excellent athletic ability to make itself an excellent athlete!

If you haven’t seen Erica before, you probably wouldn’t have thought that there are now robots so similar to real people. Erica looks like an Asian girl with brown hair and a cute face. I haven’t thought about what purpose should Erica serve yet, but maybe one day, Erica will chat with you like a real person, and accompany you when you are bored!

There are many experts who specialized in making high-simulation robots like Erica. Professor Ishiguro has made a robot based on his own image. The faces of the professor and the robot are highly similar which makes the picture of them standing together really amazing!

Of course, in order to pursue some special functions, the appearance of the robot will also change accordingly. The design inspiration and appearance of Astarisk comes from a spider. It has 6 legs, which can not only crawl, but also grab objects like a hand. The 6 legs give it excellent crawling ability, making it easy to reach the place where humans are difficult to get to. What an enviable magical function of the robot!

近年来，世界范围内人口老龄化问题越发严重，日本也不例外。面对青壮年劳动力人口减少、新生儿数量下降、老龄化人口不断增加的现状，人们该何去何从？

开发机器人的神奇功能是解决问题的一个思路。如何制作机器人，如何利用机器人，将成为未来的重要课题。我将从介绍机器人的种类开始，一步步带领大家进入一个机器人的新天地。

机器人种类繁多，用途多样，想一个个介绍清楚它们可不容易。

有一种蹦蹦跳跳能轻松翻越各种障碍，看起来和孙悟空一样灵敏的机器人阿特拉斯，它就有着极为出色的运动能力，可是个优秀的运动员呢！

如果没有见过埃里卡，小朋友们大概不会想到现在已经有和真人如此相似的机器人了吧！埃里卡外表上看起来就像一个有着棕色头发、可爱面容的亚洲女郎。我现在还没有想好埃里卡的用途，但或许某一天，埃里卡会像真人一样和你聊天，在你无聊的时候陪伴你！

制作像埃里卡这样高仿真机器人的专家可不少，石黑教授就制作了一款以他自己为原型的机器人。教授和机器人面容高度相似，他们站在一起的画面可真是太不可思议了！

当然，为了追求一些特殊功用，机器人的外表也会随之发生变化。阿斯塔里斯克的设计灵感和外表就来自蜘蛛，它有着6条腿，不仅可以爬行，还能像手一样抓取物体，6条腿赋予它出色的爬行能力，使它可以轻轻松松到达人类很难触及的地方。这是多么让人羡慕的机器人的神奇功能呀！

此外，还有一类可以用来攀爬的机器人，它们爬起墙来可是一把好手，清洁各种高层建筑或桥梁支柱等不在话下。用于负重的机器人也不能少，机器人大狗的名字很可爱，事实上它可以在复杂地形条件下搬运重物，是非常实用的机器人。野猫顾名思义，有着快速移动的能力，奔跑速度可达40km/h。

有一类机器人大家可能常常忽视，或感到困惑，那就是自动驾驶汽车。事实上，这也是一种机器人。工厂领域也存在很多机器人的身影，如可以用来抓取、组装、焊接等的工业手臂和机床。

制造和使用机器人已经成为全世界的共识。2013年，多用途工业机器人的使用量显示，日本以23%的份额占据世界第一的位置，其次是占据14%份额的美国。然而，两年后的2015年，日本份额下降至18%，紧随其后的是占据16%份额的中国，一举跃居世界第二。而到2018年，中国已跃居世界第一。中国的工业机器人使用量正在高速增长当中。

在全球机器人数量高速增长的背后，实际上是多数国家普遍面临的一个问题——人口老龄化。日本的人口老龄化问题尤其突出。老龄化社会导致劳动人口迅速减少，将会给工业和经济带来严峻的挑战。

中国也存在类似的人口老龄化情况，随着时间的推移，中国的老年人口也将不断增加，劳动力进一步减少。未来谁来工作成为老龄化社会亟须解决的难题。

外表近似蜘蛛、拥有出色爬行能力的机器人

In addition, there is a class of robots that can be used for climbing. They are good at climbing up walls and can clean up various high-rise buildings or bridge pillars, which greatly reduces the danger of humans working at heights. The robots designed to carry heavy loads are also indispensable. The robot Big Dog has a very cute name. In fact, it is a very practical robot which can carry heavy objects on complex terrains. It looks like a big steel dog. Wild Cat, as the name suggests, has a fastmoving ability. It’s running speed can reach 40 km/h.

There is a type of robot that people may often overlook or be confused upon. That is the self-driving cars. In fact, this is a type of robot, too. In addition, there are also many robots in the factories, such as industrial arms and machine tools that can be used to grasp, assemble, and weld.

Manufacturing and using robots has become the consensus of the world. In 2013, the estimated operational stock of multipurpose industrial robots showed that Japan ranked first in the world with a 23% share, followed by the United States with a 14% share. However, in 2015, two years later, Japan’s share fell to 18%, followed by China with 16% of the share, ranking second in the world in one fell swoop. By 2018, China has leapt to number one in the world. China’s industrial robots are growing rapidly.

Behind the rapid global increase in the number of robots is actually a problem commonly faced by most countries’ aging populations. Japan’s aging problem is particularly prominent. An aging society has led to a rapid decrease in the labor force, which will cause serious damage to industry and economy.

于是，机器人应运而生。

未来，人们不仅需要更多的工业机器人，也需要更多的服务型机器人。这些机器人可用于家务、护理、医疗、安全保卫等人们生活的方方面面，本用于工业的机器人也将逐渐走进人们的生活。

大家在家里常用的扫地机器人其实就是一个典型的服务机器人。此外，服务型机器人还有校园、机场、小区等常用来巡逻的保安机器人，长得像小海豹的安抚型机器人。对于行动不便的患者而言，还有专用来日常护理的机器人，可满足患者日常饮食起居的需要。

服务型机器人还包含娱乐机器人，可以像真人一般唱歌跳舞、吹奏音乐；也可用于教育，或许未来的某一天，机器人也可以成为老师站上讲台呢！

还有一些医疗服务机器人，可用来做微创手术，相对于人类而言，医疗机器人更为精确、冷静，更少会有体力和心理负担。我的实验室里就开发了不少这样的医疗机器人。

事实上，建筑机器人在机器人领域也占据着重要的地位，日本从20世纪70年代便开始研发建筑机器人，这些机器人可用来搅拌混凝土、焊接钢架、喷涂防火材料等。然而，建筑机器人投入使用的过程却一直不太顺利，毕竟那时，青壮年劳动力充足，雇用建筑工人的成本可比使用机器人低多了。但对于如今步入老龄化社会的日本来说，建筑机器人可就能起大作用了。

农业领域同样存在机器人的身影，如用来自动播种收割的机器人、可遥控割草的机器人等。

可用于日常护理的机器人

China also has a similar situation. Over time, China’s elderly population will continue to increase and the labor force will further shrink. This will become an urgent problem for an aging society in the years to come.

In this case, robots came into being.

Robots can take on most of the work: they can act as construction workers to build homes, as nurses to take care of children, as doctors to perform operations on people, and they can become teachers and so on. In an aging society, there is a shortage of labor which robots can fill up.

The function of the robot is not only as is mentioned above. In the future, people will not only need more industrial robots, we also need more service robots. These robots can be used in all aspects of people’s lives, such as housework, nursing, medical care, security and so on. Robots originally used in industry will gradually enter people’s lives.

The sweeping robot commonly used in your home is actually a typical service robot. In addition, service robots include security robots commonly used for patrols on campuses, and healing robot which looks like a small seal. For patients with limited mobility, there are also robots dedicated to daily care, which can meet the daily needs of patients in diet.

Service robots also include entertainment robots, which can sing, dance, and play music like real people; they can also be used for education. Perhaps one day in the future, robots can also become teachers on the podium!

There are also some medical service robots that can be used to perform minimally invasive surgery. Compared with humans, medical robots are more precise, calmer, and have less physical and psychological burden. Many such medical robots have been developed in my laboratory.

In fact, construction robots also occupy an important position in the field of robotics. Japan has been developing construction robots since the 1970s. These robots can be used to mix concrete, weld steel frames, spray fireproof materials, and so on. However, the process of putting construction robots into use has not been smooth all the way. After all, at that time, they had sufficient young and middleaged people to work, and the cost of hiring construction workers could be much lower. But for Japan, which is now entering an aging society, construction robots can play a bigger role.

在中国，我们也可以看见许多机器人的身影，并且许多已进入市场及人们的日常生活了，如酒店和餐厅常常使用的送餐机器人、展馆和校园内使用的保安机器人、用来启智的机器人玩具等。

介绍了这么多种机器人，大家想必也非常好奇机器人是如何制作出来的吧。以下是机器人的设计理念。

我们需要通过对形态、功能和生命智能进行建模来设计自动化的机器和系统。机器人的形态一般参考各种生命形态，如蜘蛛、海豹等，也可以参考人类的形态。而机器人的功能包括攀爬、运输、医疗等，其形态需要根据功能来进行调整。最后，我们需要赋予机器人生命智能，以实现其自动化运作。

虽然没有像哆啦A梦这样神奇的机器人，机器人的智能水平也达不到人类的水平，但机器人给人类带来的便利已经渗透到人们生活的方方面面。从大的方面来说，它们足以支持一个国家的经济发展，填补劳动力空缺；从小的方面来说，它们可以陪伴你、照顾你、治愈你。可以说，总有一天我们需要的东西会被机器人实现。机器人在大小和功能上的优势是人类无法企及的，而且它们还有最温暖人心的使命——让人类生活得更幸福。

我在实验室里就设计了一款微型机器人，它可以抓取1毫米的物体，甚至可以抓取细胞，如此精确的能力让它在医疗生物领域可以发挥巨大的作用，如通过抓取细胞来查探人体细胞的状态，甚至可以用来克隆。

了解了这么多神奇的机器人，想必小朋友们也对机器人世界产生了不小的兴趣，希望未来会有更多人在机器人领域取得成就，战胜人口老龄化！

可抓取1毫米大小物体的机器人

There are also robots in the agricultural field, such as robots for automatic sowing and harvesting, robots that can remotely mowing grass, and so on.The application of agricultural robots has greatly improved the efficiency of agricultural work. By controlling the robots, more things can be accomplished with less human interference, and the number of labor requirements will be reduced.

In China, we can also see many robots, and many have already entered the market and people’s daily lives. For example, food delivery robots often used in hotels and restaurants, security robots used in exhibition halls and campuses, robot toys used to inspire intelligence and so on.

After introducing so many kinds of robots, everyone must be very curious about how robots are made. The following is the design concept of the robot.

We need to design automated machines and systems through modeling morphology, functions, and intelligence of life. The shape of the robot generally refers to various life forms, such as the spiders and seals that appeared in nature. It can also refer to human forms and so on. The functions of the robot include climbing, transportation, medical treatment, etc. The shape needs to be adjusted according to the function. Finally, we need to give the robot life intelligence to realize its automated operation.

Although there is no magical robot like Doraemon, and the level of intelligence of robots cannot reach the level of human beings, the convenience brought by robots to humans has penetrated into all aspects of people’s lives. Their roles can be large enough to support a country’s economy and fill labor vacancies, yet also small enough to accompany you, take care of you, and heal you. It can be said that what you need will be realized by robots one day. They have advantages in size and function that humans cannot reach, and they have the most heartwarming mission-to make human life happier.

I designed a miniature robot in my laboratory. It can grasp objects as small as one millimeter, and even grasp cells. Such precise capabilities allow it to play a huge role in the field of medical biology. For example, by grabbing cells to investigate the state of human cells, it can even be used for cloning.

Knowing so many magical robots, presumably children have also developed a lot of interest in the world of robots. I hope that more and more people will make achievements in the field of robots in the future and overcome the problem of aging population!