TOKYO (AFP) - Japan may be at the forefront of Robotics and its children high on the cartoons of the robot heroes and villains, but the country has had until now to rely on United States-fact machines to help in the fight against the nuclear crisis.
March 11 serious earthquake and tsunami struck cooling reactor of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, where workers are fighting to prevent radiation leaks and a total collapse.
Although the Japan is dependent on atomic energy and leader in the development of industrial robots and humanoid machines it does not have any robots to address nuclear accidents.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) sent in a pair of Caterpillar United made PackBot robots to examine areas where radiation emitted by the rubble left by explosions is too high for humans to enter.
Experts believe that the Government has not provided sufficient funds to develop its own specialized disaster robots, who have no commercial market.
"In the case of robots, housekeeping, the market is there and for businesses can continue development," said Hajime Asama, Professor of engineering at the University of Tokyo and a developed robot working group member in place after the disaster.
"Of United States, the army is investing lots of money for this type of robot." "But at the Japan, it is prohibited to make military robots", he said.
A mistaken belief that such a nuclear catastrophe will never happen to the Japan is also to blame, he said.
"This is why the Japanese Government have not invested enough money to develop this type of robot system.". They have invested initial money for the development of the robot system, but they do continue, said Asama.
Colleagues taskforce Member Satoshi Tadokoro, Professor of Robotics at the University of Tohoku, which specializes in rescue robots, said that more than one type of robot would be necessary, given the various problems within the plant.
For the moment, the Working Group recommends the use of the robot compact Quince made of Japanese, which has two Caterpillar main and four smaller than those which can be oriented or down so that he can climb stairs projecting and debris.
TEPCO said it is considering using the robot, but there is no timetable for putting it to work. It takes three days to train a worker to use it.
"We have heard that the robot is good to move in places scattered rubble." "If we introduce it, we're going to use for investigations on the ground" in the buildings of the reactor, said a TEPCO spokesman.
Tadokoro said that quince is well suited to the task.
"In the Central nuclear if the second and third floors must be audited, there may be some debris and water and the surface could be slippery." I think that quince is most appropriate in these circumstances, "he says.
"The most difficult is to have sufficient capacity to move to nuclear power." It is not very spacious and filled with debris, therefore the robot has to go through this to see more deep inside the building. ?
The Japan had to come up with intervention measures improvised nuclear calamity, including firetrucks and helicopters, armoured with lead plates is to get rid of the water on the overheating of the reactors and spent fuel rod pools.
"I believe that robots cannot do everything and that things should be done by humans, and some need machinery heavy, Tadokoro said.
"So by combining everything that is available, we need to make the current situation to a cold case."
TEPCO said it expects to bring all six reactors at the plant of disaster, "cold shutdown" where reactor temperatures and pressures drop to levels of security, by some time between October and January.
Then that humanoid robots such as Honda's ASIMO exist already, experts say it will be some time before these machines are able to work as a human being within a nuclear power plant.
Honda on its Web site answers the question "could you be ASIMO take care of the nuclear accident."
It is said ASIMO "was developed to be useful for humans in the future, but the moment unfortunately technology has not reached the point where he can do what you have requested." Ask for your understanding.
Kazuhito Yokoi, Deputy Director of Intelligent Systems Research Institute, which developed the humanoid robot HRP-4 dancing, said: "this robot took about three years to develop, but to a man it is just taken baby steps."
"For a robot to work in Fukushima we still need development and further research.".
Asama, said the operations discussed robots for use in the plant. They Don ' t care if the robot is made to the Japan or outside. They just want to use robots best, optimal for missions, "he says.
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