Japanese scientists on Friday unveiled a robot suit designed to help farmers harvest their produce, as the nation's agriculture industry faces an ageing, shrinking workforce, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology demonstrated a prototype wearable assistance machine equipped with eight motors and 16 sensors.

The 25kg device is designed to assist elderly farmers who need support for their leg muscles and joints when crouching or lifting their arms.

The researchers said they were looking to commercial use of the suit in two to three years at an initial price ranging from 500,000 yen to one million yen (some US$5,000-10,000 dollars).

'Human robotic technology is being applied to various industries, but it has great potential in the agricultural industry, in which people have to bear a heavy burden,' professor Shigeki Toyama is quoted as saying.

'That's especially obvious in Japan, where the industry is rapidly ageing and its population is shrinking,' he said.

He expected robotics would increasingly be put to use in farming in Japan and smaller European countries, where there is not enough space for large-scale agriculture and manual labour is costly.

Topics