New advanced robot to join cleanup effort at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant

[yuiyoshida]

An advanced remote-controlled robot capable of assessing its surroundings in detail and designed to help decommission reactors at the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is set to start its performance trials next month.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is set to confirm the operational abilities of the robot, equipped with cameras with a 360-degree view and lasers capable of mapping the surroundings in 3D, before using it for decontamination work.

Decommissioning the No. 1 plant's reactors is expected to take 30-40 years. Along the way, workers will eventually have to enter the reactor buildings, but TEPCO must first carry out decontamination work in the structures to reduce high radiation levels. The utility has been attempting to clean up the reactor building interiors by using other robots. However, efforts have been hampered by the lack of information on just how much wreckage has been strewn about and where it is, and the many obstacles have frequently halted work.

The new robot's 360-degree view cameras -- developed by the University of Tokyo, the University of Tsukuba and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID), among other organizations -- will help cleanup workers get a better look at what they're up against. The device is in fact four cameras mounted high on the tracked robot, with the video feed displayed on-screen as a single all-round view.

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150921p2a00m0na002000c.html

[ZM90]

1. Do you ever think we'll live in a society where robots become common place in the near

future? I mean like a every day person having a robot that may assist them with chores for example. I wonder how close we as a world are to that. I know people imagined it long ago. Then again people thought we'd have flying cars on a mass scale by 2015 too... I'm just fascinated by technological progress and where humanity is going at times. I guess I'm thinking like Doc Brown from Back to the Future in that regard where he wanted to see where mankind was going and why.