That's not true. Agricultural robotics and automation are certainly more advanced in America and have improving for a long time. Drones with spectral cameras to examine and map plant health and irrigation levels, and to spot-spray pesticides, automated gps tractors and tools, collaborative augmented reality- nothing new in the US or Europe. It's said a lot, but Japanese robotics is somewhat myopic. IMO mostly it's due to the corporate structures in Japan: huge companies like Honda can pour tons of funding into ASIMO for 4 decades, but their goals are too narrow to make up for broad, investigative research. Plus, culture in Japan is a tangible
force, and the awareness of societal problems is so high it actually impedes pure research. They are so focused on their aging population and the automation of labor that the large majority of research is geared towards those problems in one way or another. The US has the same problem- we focus on military use over everything else, but we do it just a little less than Japan.
You typically hear this sentiment (Japan is the best at robotics) wrt humanoid robotics, especially ASIMO[1]. ASIMO is basically just a really smooth suite of soft skills. Facial recognition, voice, HRI, and consumer-friendly hardware. The hard skills underneath are extremely highly optimized but fundamentally weak and outdated by over 20 years. ASIMO runs on the same hardware and algorithms from the 90s except for batteries, computer speed and sensor accuracy. In the US we have been extremely inventive with hardware design- eg all-plastic mass-manufacture BAXTER, or ATLAS, which is largely hydraulic. The newest generations of ATLAS have hydraulic actuators integrated into the frame.
ASIMO and most japanese robots use a variation on ZMP walking methods, which has the characteristic high-knee, ankle-heavy look. It's extremely inefficient and unstable. Russian robots use this too. Other robots in the US, Europe and even in China use much more efficient, flexible methods separated by a couple generations of new algorithms. Take Cassie[2] from OSU's dynamic robotics lab. Pretty clearly far ahead of anything in Japan in stability, speed, power[3] and efficiency, built by grad students from scratch. Compact series elastic actuators with HZD algorithms.
Japanese robots are meant to look perfect. Russian robots are meant to look terrifying. American robots are meant to explore new algorithms or technologies. European robots are mostly meant to build cars.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEJeIUTValE
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is4JZqhAy-M
[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVci9qS7Ds
You typically hear this sentiment (Japan is the best at robotics) wrt humanoid robotics, especially ASIMO[1]. ASIMO is basically just a really smooth suite of soft skills. Facial recognition, voice, HRI, and consumer-friendly hardware. The hard skills underneath are extremely highly optimized but fundamentally weak and outdated by over 20 years. ASIMO runs on the same hardware and algorithms from the 90s except for batteries, computer speed and sensor accuracy. In the US we have been extremely inventive with hardware design- eg all-plastic mass-manufacture BAXTER, or ATLAS, which is largely hydraulic. The newest generations of ATLAS have hydraulic actuators integrated into the frame.
ASIMO and most japanese robots use a variation on ZMP walking methods, which has the characteristic high-knee, ankle-heavy look. It's extremely inefficient and unstable. Russian robots use this too. Other robots in the US, Europe and even in China use much more efficient, flexible methods separated by a couple generations of new algorithms. Take Cassie[2] from OSU's dynamic robotics lab. Pretty clearly far ahead of anything in Japan in stability, speed, power[3] and efficiency, built by grad students from scratch. Compact series elastic actuators with HZD algorithms.
Japanese robots are meant to look perfect. Russian robots are meant to look terrifying. American robots are meant to explore new algorithms or technologies. European robots are mostly meant to build cars.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEJeIUTValE
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is4JZqhAy-M
[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVci9qS7Ds