Every year Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) distinguishes the top achievements in robotics. So who/what won 2007? Fanuc’s industrial robot system. Two arms are driven by advanced visual tracking to, well, just watch the clip. What you see is not automated movement, but a series of real-time decisions allowing 120 items to be picked up per minute. Plus, the arms can function 24 hours a day and are constructed from a plastic that requires no grease. Since their launch in 2006, around 150 units have been sold worldwide—hopefully none to Cyberdyne Systems…yet. [pinktentacle via botjunkie]
