CRI听力:Robots Go from Fiction to Reality at HK Conference

With the theme of "Robotics and Automation: Technologies Enabling New Economic Growth", this conference focuses on helping humans, with many 'service' robots on display.

Jason Jin, an Assistant Research Engineer at Robotics, shares his ideas on how robots can help.

"Before this technology was developed, students mainly focused on math or physics, learning a single subject in those fields. But as this technology is developing, children can make physical contact with what they are learning. Robotics is an integrated subject, including electronics, mechanics and computer science, etc. So robotics has great educational potential. Now the development of robotics provides children with some more suitable learning tools."

Aside from educational purposes, robots can also be used for human care, work in danger zones, and menial labor.

Julian Ware is an exhibitor at the conference who specializes in using robots for outdoor research.

Ware says the potential for what robots can do in the real world is not far from what Hollywood has imagined in films in the last decade.

"Obviously there's a lot of entertainment value in those movies, but in those same movies you'll see autonomous vehicles, I think we're only a few decades away from that."

Robotic arms, mostly used for rehabilitation and medical purposes, are also widely seen in the conference.

Some people expect robots will help promote social development by taking over menial work, leaving humans with more time for bigger jobs.

An example of that is the Baxter, created by renowned Australian roboticist Rodney Brooks.

It is a low-cost and user-friendly factory robot which can be programmed simply by moving its arms.

Jenssen Chang is the general manager at Shanghai Gaitech Scientific Instruments Co Ltd.

"I mean, robots can replace the labour. I mean, to repeat a low-level task. At the same time, you can train the people to do something advanced. This is the so-called development for society."

The conference runs until Thursday.

For CRI, I'm Cao Yuwei.