Japan like most modern nations has a big problem in the country side, where young people leave for the cities leaving only older people to tend to the land. At least there making technology that may help the farmers, unlike here in Britain.

I was hoping for Aliens type cargo loader complete with blowtorch and optional minigun. Still early days...

I was envisioning more of a strap on JCB type of thing like the one from the cargo hold in Aliens rather than the rather puny one featured in the news article...

Didn't a certain Ms. Ripley drive one of these things (called a powerloader?) in Aliens?

too easy

"It's going to take more than a few hastily reprogrammed robot butlers to deal with them."

come back Godzilla, all is forgiven......

I think French farmers ought to consider the use of these performance enhancing suits during their next riot - I seem to remember a French farmer trying to throw a sheep at the police during a confrontation at the docks once (something to do with British imports I think). It didn't go very far (more of a drop really) - I scored it at 8 for originality but only 0 for effectiveness.

Bring on the 'loader' suit out of Aliens. I've always wanted one of those, for farming purposes obviously...

anyone who played Aliens vs. Predator will fondly remember the triumph to be had when playing a death match as the horrifically handicapped marine only to stumble across ALICE...

ALICE was a modified powerloader, equip with many handy tools to even out balance between the invisible predator or the nails aliens.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nachosan/3588274/in/set-16044/

Just when you have 200kg of rice above your head ready to put on top of a pile...

Wile E. Coyote, anyone?

I for one welcome Mecha-Farmerzilla.

He can help with that pesky giant dinosaur/moth problem that I've been having recently.

...the robotic power-loading exoskeleton was first devised by the famed British inventor, Mr. Wallace Park, as described in that classic documentary film, "The Wrong Trousers".

Harry Harrison - Captive Universe (1969)

can it transform into an aeroplane or car?

It's gotta be better than the idiot's we've got in power at the minute...

Robocrop?

Have you read any of the other 'most popular' stories on this site?

Why do they pr0n when they have news sites like this?!?

10/10 for literative titles though!

The basic concept was first developed in Robert Anson Heinlein's "Waldo," published by Doubleday in 1942. Waldo only used the upper-body portion, as I recall, and developed anti-gravity to solve the problem of getting around under Earth's gravity.

As robots become more common, questions arise about how they will be regulated. One way to regulate them will be to form legally-binding contracts with their owners.

http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/01/robot-surveillance-contracts.html

A "Japanese radish" is the vegetable which can be bought in Indian groceries in the UK under the name "mooli". One Japanese radish can weigh two kilograms.

...the frustrated farmers' wives will use strap-ons of another kind while the "boys" play with their toys !! The mind boggles at Robo.....

They are called Daikon and they can average between two and three feet long and between 4-5 inches in diameter !!

This is a deliberate separate post and has nothing whatsoever to do with the previous post !!

I should have said "circumference" not "diameter" !! I blame that on the wasabi bring tears to my eyes !!