By Carole Goldsmith Copyright ©2010 All Rights Reserved
Visiting auto and other manufacturing plants is one of my favourite activities to do when visiting Japan. Most tourists go to Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka and travel around the country side, I do that too. However, given the opportunity to visit a factory plant tour, I get very exited and that is one of the highlights of my trip.
On one warm spring day, I had booked myself in for an auto plant tour. The lovely Kimiko (not her real name) who was assigned to be my own private tour guide, took me on a walking tour above the production line. The robots were in action, doing what they do naturally, at least naturally via computers. I watched with facination as their long arms were moving slowly while picking up the car's seat and placing it in the car body with absolute precision.
I asked Kimiko "Do the robots ever make mistakes?" No, they never make mistakes," said Kimiko. Just at that very moment, we watched as the next car body approached. The tip of the robot's arm reached and collected the next car seat on the assembly line. All of a sudden, the robot released the car seat and it went flying through the air and fell to the side of the assembly line. The car body arrived and there was no seat to go in it as it was on the floor by now. Kimiko held her hand to her face in a very shocked state. I was really trying to control my laughter as Kimiko was obviously very embarassed about the naughty robot making a mistake.
I said politely, "Robots are really like humans and sometimes they just make a little mistake when they are tired". We had a little laugh together and went on our way to see the rest of the tour
So Yes, robots sometimes do make mistakes
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