Raw Japan

Naked robot no fashion threat

She appeared naked on the runway with a body that will never succumb to age, but a new robot model’s first fashion outing at the Tokyo Fashion Week posed no threat to supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Monday’s appearance of the HRP-4C humanoid robot at a fashion show illustrated not only how far robots have come, but also how far they still have to go.

She shuffled forward a little, looking a little unsteady on her feet, introduced the fashion show and bowed. Then she shuffled back again. And that was it.

“We believe this is Japan’s and perhaps the world’s first humanoid robot to walk on two feet and resemble the average body type of a young Japanese woman,” says Shuji Kajita, director of humanoid robot engineering at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, where HRP-4C was made.