For many years,machines have been doing work that people once did,including some dit- ficutt jobs. Search and rescue operations in dangerous environments are often seen as the first areas that will employ high technology robots. But there is another area where they may soon take jobs traditionally held by human beings: the restaurant industry. Teams from around the world competed in early June at the DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals in California. A team from South Korea and its robot,called DRC-Hubo,won the first place in the competition. The second and third place winners were from the United States. The robots were required to drive a vehicle,climb up steps and do mechanical work. Such activities are easy for humans to perform,but more difficult for machines. Not all of the competitor were successful. The failures showed how difficult it is to design effective walking machines. Akihiro Suzuki works at Yaskawa Electric,a company that develops robots. He says robots cannot do everything a human can,but they are able to work without becoming tired. He says robots cannot taste food,change heating levels or seasonings to get the best flavor  .But he says if a food can be easily prepared,a robot can repeat the same movement to reproduce the same meal. One Japanese woman who saw the robots working wanted to bring them home. Masayo Mori says she would like to have a husband who could work like a robot. Suzumo Machinery showed its sushi  maker robot. It performs the often difficult work of wrapping the popular Japanese food. Hiroshi Monden is an official with the company. He says people all over the world now eat sushi,but there are not enough skilled workers to prepare it. He says his machine can help anyone make sushi. Why did some teams fail at the DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals?
Their robots cannot be applied at home. Preparing food is really difficult for robots. Their robots can just repeat the same movement. They failed to design effective walking robots.