Representatives of the Japanese railway company West Japan Rail Company published pictures and videos, the main figure of which is their new robot-worker, designed to perform heavy and dangerous work. The robot is mounted at the end of the boom of the crane, it has a head, torso and arms, which copy the movements of the human pilot with the help of virtual reality-based remote control technology.
Representatives of JR West describe the purpose of creating such an automated worker as “increasing productivity and improving safety” when working with heavy structural elements at height and in close proximity to contact electrical wires.
As mentioned above, the robot is mounted at the end of the boom of a hydraulic crane placed on a small self-propelled railroad platform. The operator of the robot is in the crane cab, which looks very, very similar to the cabs of conventional cranes.
But in this cabin, in addition to the traditional crane control levers, there is a console with which the operator can control the movements of the robot. Moreover, this system features feedback, which allows the operator to feel the weight of the object lifted by the robot, or assess the applied force. And the virtual reality glasses broadcasting the images from the cameras mounted on the head of the robot allow the operator to follow the progress of the work being carried out.
The robot arms have several degrees of freedom and are equipped with grippers that can hold all kinds of specialized tools. It could be said that the robot can be quite dexterous in handling tools and elements of the railway infrastructure, if it were not for the relatively low movement speed of the arms, which makes the robot quite slow.
Looking at all this, the question arises, why was it necessary to give this robot a distinctly humanoid shape? The answer is quite simple, and it’s not about the traditional Japanese love of “Gundam” type robots. The point is that by operating the robot’s torso, arms and head in their usual places, the human operator learns faster, acts more confidently and efficiently, using his own innate reflexes.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the robot-worker was designed and developed by JR West specialists together with specialists from Human Machinery Co. and Nippon Signal Co.
