Future Robotics Technology Center's Rosemary to accompany its predecessor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant disaster is still in the memory of Japanese with its ex-Prime Minister recently expressing his fear at the time of tragedy. Japanese have been at the forefront in robotics, with companies like Honda giving a demo of how advanced their robots are. Unfortunately, at the time of calamity, it was not Japanese but American robots that first detected leakage. The Future Robotics Technology Center sent a robot some time back inside the nuclear plant to tackle things in case of collapse of subway tunnels. The center is going to roll out a new robot named "Rosemary" that will extend the work of the first robot inside the plant.

Robotics Technology Center's Rosemary

The Center is giving demonstrations of its new robot where it is shown climbing up and down the stairs at angles over 60 degrees. The lawn mower sized robot is designed like a battle tank with four treaded feet, which are used to overcome obstacles and are raised up like antennas otherwise. Despite being small size, it can carry a weight of up to 132 pounds and is a tough robot to which the exposure tests it went through are a testimony. The project was funded by the government and was developed by the center in collaboration with Chiba Institute of Technology. While Japan is still working out things to assess the after effects of the leakage, Fukushima incident is a lesson to the world and countries throughout the world need to better prepare themselves to handle such calamities.

Via: Cio