Japan shows off rescue robots at android fair
Focus this year is on robotic equipment for disaster relief, assisting the elderly and farming
Japan yesterday displayed a pair of two-legged humanoid robots that can operate in harsh conditions as the country prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions prepares for the next catastrophe.
Simulating work in a tunnel after a quake, two slender robots with tiny heads attached with sensors walked through fake debris to extinguish a fire during a demonstration at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo.
The four-day event which kicked off yesterday, is held once every two years in Japan’s capital. This year it is drawing nearly 450 participating organisations — the biggest since it started about four decades ago. Some 57 of the groups come from countries including France, Britain, Russia and South Korea.
Disasters a fact of life
This year’s show is focused on robotic equipment for disaster relief, assisting the elderly as well as their caregivers, and for farming.
Disasters are a fact of life for Japan, an archipelago nation facing the “Ring of Fire” — the rim of the Pacific Ocean that includes other earthquake and volcanic zones from Chile all the way around to New Zealand.
The two disaster-relief droids were developed under the New Energy and Industrial Development (NEDO) — a national research organisation — that started after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan in 2011.
But unlike in Hollywood movies where bots can run, jump and fly at high-speeds, these droids are the slow and steady type.
HRP-2 Kai and red-and-yellow coloured JAXON — named after the late singer Michael Jackson — were yesterday focused on more serious tasks.
“HRP-2 Kai is now recognising debris and thinking with a sensor on its head about where to put its foot,” said Fumio Kanehiro, researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology that developed the robot.
While HRP-2 Kai, which is 170cm, walked on a narrow board, 188cm-tall JAXON — developed by the University of Tokyo — moved forward by bending its back and putting both hands on the floor, judging that the ceiling was too low to move upright.
It then lifted itself up to remove a box and debris to secure a pathway — tasks that could be done even in a risky environment hazardous to humans.
But humanoid bots are far from perfect, suffering from balance problems on rough terrain, conceded Shuji Yumitori, head of NEDO’s robot division.