Japan introduces enormous humanoid robot to maintain train lines

[snowball]

From the Guardian:

Japan introduces enormous humanoid robot to maintain train lines

The 12-metre high machine has coke bottle eyes and a crude Wall-E-like head, as well as large arms that can be fitted with blades or paint brushes

www.theguardian.com

It resembles an enormous, malevolent robot from 1980s sci-fi but West Japan Railway’s new humanoid employee was designed with nothing more sinister than a spot of painting and gardening in mind.

Starting this month, the large machine with enormous arms, a crude, disproportionately small Wall-E-like head and coke-bottle eyes mounted on a truck – which can drive on rails – will be put to use for maintenance work on the company’s network.

Its operator sits in a cockpit on the truck, “seeing” through the robot’s eyes via cameras and operating its powerful limbs and hands remotely.

With a vertical reach of 12 metres (40ft), the machine can use various attachments for its arms to carry objects as heavy as 40kg (88lb), hold a brush to paint or use a chainsaw.

For now, the robot’s primary task will focus on trimming tree branches along rails and painting metal frames that hold cables above trains, the company said.

The technology will help fill worker shortages in ageing Japan as well as reduce accidents such as workers falling from high places or suffering electric shocks, the company said.

“In the future, we hope to use machines for all kinds of maintenance operations of our infrastructure,” and this should provide a case study for how to deal with the labour shortage, company president Kazuaki Hasegawa told a recent press conference.

 

[Basil Jet]

"Its operator sits in a cockpit on the truck"

It's not a robot if it has a human operating it.

 

[AngusH]

It's not a robot if it has a human operating it.

Not in Japan, where giant piloted robots are commonplace ...


I found some more footage of it (or possibly an earlier version of it) :

It looks like VR helmet + hand controllers, but this video is 2 years old, so the one being reported may be cleverer.

And this one which seems more like a lecture on the topic:
(english automated subtitles are available in youtube)

Looking at it in the video it seems great, I hope that it may be able to reduce risk of injury and speed up work.

 

[Western 52]

Maybe NR can use some of these to help with vegetation removal? Theyll need quite a few though!

 

[Prime586]

It was developed by Jinki Ittai (Man-Machine Synergy Effectors Co., Ltd.), which was set up in 2007 by Dr. Katsuya Kanaoka, a robotics reseracher at Ritsumeikan University in Kusatsu city. JR West bought into the company in May 2020 and in April 2021 the announced the start of development of the Zero Type Human Machine, a "general-purpose humanoid heavy machinery for high-altitude heavy work in the railway field", which was based on their prototype "PF06 Spatial Heavy Work Human Machine Social Implementation Platform". This would co-developed with JR West and Nippon Electric Signal Co. (the 'Nesco' branding seen on the machine), who also bacame a shareholder in October 2022.

The first prototype, Zero Type Human Machine V2.0, started testing in April 2022 on JR West's Kusatsu Training Line (which is where the earlier video comes from). In November 2023, the second prototype Zero Type 2 Human Machine V1.0 was unvelied (whichis the one doing the rounds in today's news). They also announced another derivative of the Zero Type Human Machine that was being developed with Takenaka Civil Engineering Co., Ltd. and Tohoku Electric Power Network Co., Ltd for working on overhead power distribution networks.

It's an example of what happens when a generation of kids who grew up watching 'giant mecha' anime like Macross, Gundam and Evangelion grow up to be scientists and engineers.

 

[Thames99]

Japan has a particular problem with the birth rate collapsing and are forced into spending money on automating or mechanising where they can. In other countries where staff are available a gang of workers with chain saws is going to be more economical to clear lineside trees and undergrowth than using hugely expensive machinery.

Mind you those skills honed by hours of playing x-box games might finally be put to good use in Japan controlling their new machines. They will have the last laugh when they remember their mothers telling them off for wasting their time in their adolescence.

 

[RailWonderer]

Japan has a particular problem with the birth rate collapsing and are forced into spending money on automating or mechanising where they can. In other countries where staff are available a gang of workers with chain saws is going to be more economical to clear lineside trees and undergrowth than using hugely expensive machinery.

Without getting political, isn't this kind of machinery an alternative to allowing mass low skilled migration?

 

[Tester]

Without getting political, isn't this kind of machinery an alternative to allowing mass low skilled migration?

Absolutely, and that's why they are doing it.