Speecys, a Japanese firm, had developed a humanoid billed as the world's first robot powered by easy-to-replace, environmentally friendly, fuel cell batteries, it said yesterday.
Speecys, based in Tokyo and headed by former Sony robot engineer Tomoaki Kasuga, will on Friday begin selling the 50cm tall, 4.2kg robot carrying a built-in hydrogen cylinder.
Fuel cells produce electricity via a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, leaving water as the only by-product.
"Fuel cells are a promising material as the source of energy for operating robots in the future.
It is more suitable for robots to get fuel in cartridges as if they were having meals rather than to get batteries recharged," Speecys said.
Speecys-FC is priced at ´2.5 million (R151 609) a unit, five times as pricy as a previous version run by conventional nickel metal hydride batteries.
The company aims to sell 10 units of Speecys-FC a year for research and display purposes.