Japanese robots, old and new, astound Merkel (News Feature)

Apr 21, 2008, 12:46 GMT

Hanover, Germany - Robots, old and new, astounded German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday as she toured the Hanover Fair, the world's biggest annual show of industrial plant and automation, on its first day.

With a gaggle of aides and reporters in tow, the chancellor was introduced to a Japanese humanoid robot, which has arms and legs like one of us. Scientists explained that it was a world first, since it is no experiment, but advanced enough to commercialize.

Merkel was just as amazed by a little clockwork archer which can fire off a delicately crafted arrow: it was made 400 years ago, a forerunner of Japan's world-class robot and automation industry.

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is demonstrating 30 of its latest products at the fair, ranging from amenity robots which which can assist humans in the home to solar batteries and advanced sealants made from clay.

Merkel personally wrote to leading Japanese corporations in January last year asking them to take part in the fair, and followed through, during a visit to Japan later in the year, by urging attendance. In all, 150 Japanese companies are at the Fair.

Elsewhere, Merkel was told enough figures about the energy-saving potential of factory automation to make one's head reel.

Here there were German tyres with 40-per-cent reduced road friction (reducing overall fuel use by 8 per cent). Over there an industrial cooling plant that reduces energy use by 30 per cent and thus saves massive amounts of carbon-dioxide emissions.

Merkel, who officially opened the fair the previous evening before the trade buyers arrived, remained cheerful throughout her two-hour tour, which also included the Energy Efficiency Tunnel, an expo on ways to cut power use.

Assembled by two German industry federations, VDMA and ZVEI, it also suggests how private households could cut power use by 40 per cent using technology that is already commercially available.

The fair is also a showcase for suppliers to heavy industry, such as Mecklenburger Metallguss, a German company that casts huge propellers for ships. As it happens, Merkel is a member of parliament for the Mecklenburg area of Germany where it is based.

'We're opening an extension to our factory in Waren an der Mueritz,' the chief executive told her. 'I hope you'll be there.'

Busy Merkel gracefully sidestepped the invitation. 'I can't say straight off, but write me a letter,' she replied with her winning smile, as she and her convoy departed again on their tightly timed tour of the fair.