This Mechanical Arm from Japan Will Turn You into a Cool Dishwashing Robot

What kind of cybernetic enhancements would you get, if you could get any kind of cool mechanical devices attached to your body? I think I’d want a pair of super-fast running legs like the Bionic Woman (but an extra set of giant mechanical arms like Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man would be pretty great, too!). Cooking would be so much faster if I had two extra sets of arms, and cleaning would be a breeze.

I’m still waiting for that technology to make it to the open market, but in the meantime Japan has a portable dishwashing arm that might be the next best thing.

According to Sora News 24, this magnificent, lime-green plastic device is called the Kuru Sara Wash, and it’s a battery-powered, handheld robot arm for washing dishes. It’s pretty cool to watch it work, too.

It looks like a cross between an electric toothbrush and a praying mantis, but with its amazing articulated arms the dishwashing wand can hold onto plates and bowls of all different sizes. It spins the dish around under the scrubbing bristles to clean it, while you just hold the arm still and don’t even have to get your hands wet.

The Kuru Sara Wash wand takes an estimated three to 10 seconds to wash a single dish, depending on how dirty the dish is to start with. Clamp it down shut, and you can use the wand to clean utensils and cooking tools by just passing them through the bristles as it scrubs.

It’s not a full dishwasher, but it’s a pretty neat halfway point between having a full-sized dishwasher and washing dishes entirely by hand, with no robot assistance at all. It’s only 8,800 yen, or about $80, so it’s much less expensive than a dishwasher. It’s also much smaller and more portable than a regular dishwasher, and is perfect if you want to make dishwashing more fun by pretending you’re in The Jetsons.

What do you think of this hand-held dishwashing arm?