Faced with both a rapidly-aging long-lived population and a declining birth rate, and much more hesitant to open its borders to immigrants like other countries with the same problems, Japan is looking to robotics as a solution to caring for its many elderly citizens.

RI-MAN is a five-foot tall humanoid robot built to carry human beings. It's equipped with sensors to keep track of a body's weight and position, can distinguish between eight different smells and the direction a voice is coming from, as well as track the movement of a face.

Aging Japan builds robot to look after elderly [Yahoo! News]

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