CRI听力:Robotic Tech Makes Headway in 2012

This uncanny android is the latest creation of Professor Ishiguro Hiroshi from Osaka University in Japan.

Known as the "Beicho android," it has been modeled on veteran "rakugo" performer Katsura Beicho. Rakugo is the traditional Japanese sit-down equivalent of stand-up comedy. A single performer tells the audience a story, often described as a "comic monologue."

But while the Beicho android looks like a kindly grandfather, the four-ton KURATAS robot looks like some future weapon of destruction.

Despite its menacing appearance, this Japanese manga (cartoon) super robot is really just a giant plaything.

The four-legged robot's steel body stands four meters at its tallest. It runs on diesel and can move at a maximum speed of 10 kilometers per hour.

The device is operated from inside a cockpit using either a touch-screen interface coupled with a controller, or a wearable glove that controls the robot's arms and fingers.

Robots provided the entertainment at the Technology Festival in Berlin in August.

A little bot, nicknamed Amy, performs a passable rendition of Michael Jackson's famous "Thriller" dance routine.

A team in Sweden is attempting to build robots that can do the housework. There's still some way to go, but the robots are learning.

Right now, the robots have to be programmed specifically to each home so they know what they need to do, such as emptying the fridge or taking out the trash.

But scientists at the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology are hoping to change this by collecting huge amounts of data from people's homes that can be used to create a basic understanding of how homes function.

All of this is technology for the future, but over in Beijing a tech-savvy restaurateur has invented a robot chef to make sliced noodles.

The metal chef is proving to be popular with diners—and is saving on salaries.

The robot chef is the invention of Cui Runquan, so it's no surprise this metal meal provider with flashing eyes is known as Chef Cui.

Chef Cui is the fourth incarnation of the robot. It works on the same principle as a set of windshield wipers, shaving with up and down movements.

Each robot chef is sold at around 13,000 yuan or about 2,000 U.S. dollars. More than 3,000 Chef Cuis have been sold so far.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.