Shiga lab creates robot to perform risky tasks

A Shiga Prefecture laboratory is developing a potentially lifesaving industrial robot that allows its operator, via virtual reality, to grasp and li heavy objects as if using their own hands.

e robot, which weighs about 450 kilograms, can be attached to a crane to work in high places, including carrying out inspections and maintenance of overhead railway wires.

e virtual reality gear worn by the operator provides a robot’s-eye view, in addition to force feedback to give the operator a sense of what is being li ed.

e robot — dubbed “jinki,” or humanoid machine — is being developed by Man-Machine Synergy E ectors, Inc., in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture. Its president, Kanaoka Hakase, aka Dr. Kanaoka, is a 50-year-old robot researcher and visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University who started his own company in 2007.

e company has no production plant but earns money from patent royalties and other fees, by collaborating with companies and other entities that want to use its robots.

Kanaoka said that while he has seen many industrial robots in Japan, he began to wonder why the technology was not being used to save lives in the a ermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

e new robot’s development began a er West Japan Railway Co. consulted with Kanaoka about using a robot to prevent workplace accidents such as workers falling from overhead wires or receiving electric shocks during maintenance.

“We want to eliminate physical hard work through robotics,” Kanaoka said.

e company is currently conducting demonstrations of the new robot, with the aim of putting it into practical use in the spring of 2024.

e company is also developing a larger robot that walks on two legs, aiming to expand its functions to inspections of tunnels and bridges.

e company’s robots, including the walking robot with a height of 4 to 5 meters, are scheduled to be displayed at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. (Aug. 15)