Natural catastrophes wreak havoc on our infrastructure and communities. Relief efforts are often seriously hindered when human access is either difficult or impossible.
In March 2011, an earthquake, followed by a tsunami, hit the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, flooding the rooms housing the emergency generators. When these failed, the plant's cooling systems shut off, triggering the biggest nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl. Experts say that, had we been able to take action in the first 24 hours, perhaps reactor 1 would not have blown up and the entire disaster might have been averted. However, entering reactor 1's compound to release the valve which would have released the hydrogen gas safely into the atmosphere was too dangerous for humans due to radioactivity.
The damaged reactors released radioactive chemicals, making access too dangerous for humans. This prompted the Japanese government to send a request for robots developed by the US military to help deal with the crisis. The robots went into the plants, and took pictures to help assess the situation. But they couldn't perform human tasks.
Following Fukushima, efforts to develop humanoid robots that could supplement relief efforts accelerated. The aim was to develop robots that could take over when things become dangerous, walking over rubble, climbing ladders, negotiating obstacles and even using tools to make repairs (like releasing the valves at reactor 1).
The US Department of Defense's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sees robots as vital in disaster response. DARPA launched a competition and offered to provide contestants with funding of up to 4 million dollars. By the time the BBC documentary I link to below was filmed, DARPA had received over 100 proposals from renowned research groups worldwide, including NASA and MIT.
When it comes to humanoid robotics, Honda's Asimo, with its advanced artificial intelligence, is Japan's crowning achievement. Following the disaster, many in Japan asked Honda to send Asimo in to help. Sadly, Asimo was incapable of offering the kind of assistance required. Honda immediately offered to produce a robot free of charge to assist TEPCO in the recovery. The robot would be able to open and close valves inside the plant, so as to flush out any radioactive materials left in the pipes and thus bring down radiation levels in the facility.
The Fukushima disaster also inspired the US government to develop emergency response robots. And of course, many companies are looking to use humanoid robots for many other tasks. For instance, Rethink Robotics' Baxter can learn new tasks in under 5 minutes, making Baxter ideal for manufacturing production lines. At a price tag of just 22,000 USD, many companies have already placed a flurry of orders, hoping to slash their labor costs in the long-term.
First came the industrial revolution, then the computer revolution… Welcome to the robotics revolution! From driverless cars (expected to dominate our roads by 2050 https://openminds.swissre.com/stories/558/) to AI robot colleagues at work, we'd better get used to our new friends!
Click here to meet Honda's Asimo, Boston Dynamics' Atlas, KAIST's Hubo (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology robot modeled on Asimo) and others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zP7yP8hdLE
Picture of Honda's Asimo courtesy of LSDSL, wikipedia
Category: Climate/natural disasters: Disaster risk, Other
Location: Daichi, Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, Japan