EXCLUSIVE: Humanoid robots may come sooner than you think

Hanson Robotics’ founder Dr. David Hanson believes their lifelike robots can establish relationships with humans and can be beneficial in the fields of education, hospitality and medicine. He says the company could within a year or so be mass manufacturing robots for various applications such as these.

In an exclusive interview with Global Sources, he said, “China is a great place to do this kind of manufacturing because of the supply chain of locally manufactured components and because of the connection to the West.”

"That's why we're here (in Hong Kong). We're scaling our manufacturing so that we can put them out there at affordable prices into museums and retail spaces, and use them for customer service, entertainment, information and educational purposes,” he said.

The company is already sourcing electronic components such as sub assemblies and motors from China. There is no other place like this part of the world for certain kinds of components and manufacturing, especially if you want to optimize the cost of a mass manufactured electro-mechanical product like robots.

He added that making robots look like humans “can allow people to relate to robots…and provides emotional access to technology."

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