What happens when you are a billionaire with plenty of time on your hands? Well, Masayoshi Son intends to use part of his wealth in order to create Android for robots. Apparently, a unit of Son’s SoftBank Corp. has revealed an operating system which is touted to deliver a method which will control robots just like how Google’s Android keeps smartphones and tablets humming along. Known as V-Sido OS, this platform is highly customizable, where it can see action across a variety of robots, including those that are used in home health care, construction and entertainment segments.
It is said that as additional companies start to look into building robots to expand the market in Japan, the V-Sido OS will be purely software, which can be adjusted in order for it to adopt across many purposes. The whole idea behind an operating system for robots was mooted after viewing the Japanese animation series known as “Mobile Suit Gundam,” where pilots rely on levers to control their robots’ movements as they take on enemies in space.
Where there is an operating system, surely security would be an issue, and considering how all of these would be networked in some way or another, it might end up as a Skynet-like catastrophe should robots go wild.
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