{"id":90585,"date":"2024-07-20T16:16:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T06:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=90585"},"modified":"2024-07-20T16:16:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T06:16:23","slug":"japan-introduces-enormous-humanoid-robot-to-maintain-train-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=90585","title":{"rendered":"Japan introduces enormous humanoid robot to maintain train lines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It resembles an enormous, malevolent robot from 1980s sci-fi but West\u00a0Japan<\/a> Railway\u2019s new humanoid employee was designed with nothing more sinister than a spot of painting and gardening in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 which can drive on rails \u2013 will be put to use for maintenance work on the company\u2019s network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its operator sits in a cockpit on the truck, \u201cseeing\u201d through the robot\u2019s eyes via cameras and operating its powerful limbs and hands remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Japan\u2019s giant robot fixes railway power lines. Photograph: Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For now, the robot\u2019s primary task will focus on trimming tree branches along rails and painting metal frames that hold cables above trains, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cIn the future, we hope to use machines for all kinds of maintenance operations of our infrastructure,\u201d and this should provide a case study for how to deal with the labour shortage, company president Kazuaki Hasegawa told a recent press conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":90588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8167,47,6070],"tags":[11704,318,11703],"class_list":["post-90585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japan-rail-news","category-rail-news","category-railway-track-structures","tag-giant-railway-robot","tag-japan","tag-west-japan-railways"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t