- Title: JAPAN: Fukushima disaster tests mettle of local robot makers
- Date: 28th December 2012
- Summary: FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR PLANT, FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN (FILE - FEBRUARY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR PLANT PEOPLE STANDING IN FRONT OF NUCLEAR PLANT MORE OF NUCLEAR PLANT
- Embargoed: 12th January 2013 12:00
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- Location: Japan
- City:
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Disasters,Technology
- Reuters ID: LVA52D41WCEPRAWIMHZ7JJC3QMIY
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- Story Text: It's an unlikely nickname for a robot designed for heavy lifting, but "Rosemary" has been developed to go where few Japanese robots have gone before - inside the crippled reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan.
Capable of lifting up to 60 kilograms and equipped with a camera designed to transmit a live video signal, Rosemary was unveiled for the first time in July. She is controlled remotely with a video-game controller and can climb obstacles and slopes as steep as 60 degrees. She is one of the first Japanese robots capable of working inside the power plant in the place of humans for whom radiation levels are still dangerously high.
Despite its reputation as a world leader in industrial robot design and development, Japan did not have a device capable of entering the damaged facility. The Chiba Institute of Technology's Professor Eiji Koyanagi has been working hard ever since, to change that dynamic.
"Three thousand of America's Packbots were purchased by the US military and the robot was used in the battlefield with soldiers training in it and because of that, it kept improving. But Japan's problem is that our robots don't actually get used," said Koyanagi.
For the past year, Japan's major industrial manufacturers, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Toshiba have made a push to stop that trend and develop a new generation of robot workers.
Mitsubishi has recently unveiled a 440 kilogram robot called MEISTeR. The robot is armed with attachable tools suited for different missions inside the reactor. It can bore a hole in a concrete wall to test radiation levels and use its manipulator arm to shut or open valves and doors, a crucial task in a leaking nuclear reactor.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nuclear Energy Systems general manager Jinichi Miyaguchi says the role of robots in Fukushima has changed from information gathering to actually replacing humans for manual tasks.
"Since we know the situation on the ground, we will need to start work. We will need a different type of robot compared to the ones we have now to do this sort of work. That means, among other things, being able to carry heavy loads and such and we think the Meister is suited to accomplish this goal," Miyaguchi said.
Hitachi, a company which is better known for producing electronics than robots, has its goal in the heavy-weight division.
Hitachi has been developing a 2.5 ton robot crawler. It's equipped with excavator arms that can be fitted with claws, cutters and grips. Hitachi's Takashi Sekigami says the cleanup efforts at Fukushima have provided a test-bed and incentive for development of these types of robots.
"Whatever it is, there are a lot of new technologies being developed right now to deal with the situation and I think these technologies will improve with time," said Hitachi Engineering and Service division chief Takashi Sekigami.
Critics say development of new technologies has been slowed by a lack of communication between the companies and Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the leaking plants.
Former nuclear power plant designer Masashi Goto thinks that Japan's manufacturers will undergo a long process of trial-and-error in developing technology because the two sides aren't talking.
"The manufacturers are assuming what the situation on the ground will be but things will change once the robots hit the ground so there will be a lot of trial and error every time they encounter a problem so this is a test-bed. I have a strong feeling that the manufacturers are doing it for the sake of experimentation at this stage," said Goto.
Goto also thinks there is limited application for the technology beyond Fukushima as nuclear power plants are unique structures which require unique technologies.
Toshiba Corp's four-legged device designed to work inside the plant showed that the technology faces hurdles .
The robot locked up during a demonstration. A clear reminder that developing robots designed to replace manpower still has a long way to go. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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