Through a drone camera, a survivor is located among the rubble. A robot brings her water while rescuers in exoskeleton suits open an exit to evacuate her on an autonomous stretcher.
It’s a futuristic vision on display at the Japan Mobility Show, showing how technology can sometimes replace humans in a country with a labor shortage and many natural disasters.
In the exhibition, fictional tragedy is caused by Godzilla, the protagonist of many Japanese films from the 1950s.
In Japan, about 30% of the population is 65 years or older.
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“Due to population decline, there are fewer and fewer people for dangerous tasks,” said Tomoyuki Izu, founder of Attraclab, a startup specializing in autonomous driving.
“My idea is to help people like firefighters with my machines,” Izu, 61, told AFP.
At the Japan Mobility Show, Attraclab participated in developing a small robot that moves through cardboard waste and designed a remote control stretcher.
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The Japanese government prefers “traditional equipment” in rescue operations, he pointed out in a room open to the public this weekend.
But Izu believes there is a market for advanced technology in the future.
“There are many anime in Japan with humanoid robots, so people like them. But this type of autonomous vehicle is still considered strange,” he added.
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Since 2016, Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has been developing Kaleido, a humanoid robot capable of delicately lifting and carrying an injured person.
“In the future, this robot could save people or go to dangerous areas like fires,” said Itsuki Koda of KHI’s Robotics Division.
However, he admitted that the device needs to further improve its scanning capabilities to overcome difficult terrain.
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“If we want to use it in real situations, we need many more years of development, where the conditions are always different,” he explained to AFP.
Kalido’s current load capacity is 60 kg and this will be increased in the new prototype, Koda said.
Cost is also a concern.
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Currently the robot is “10 times more expensive than a human, but if we produce 10,000 a year, the price will come down quickly,” Koda said.
After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, another niche has emerged: robots to clean up difficult or dangerous disaster areas.
Engineering firm Sukino Machine has unveiled a small but powerful tracked mobile robot arm capable of working in places where emergency personnel can’t go.
The machine was developed for the National Atomic Research Institute in 2018 as Japan continues to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
“It can be used for initial damage assessment or removal of debris or heavy objects that people cannot lift,” Sukino’s Akira Inujima told AFP.
You can attach a variety of devices to your arm, such as temperature or radiation sensors or high-pressure water launchers.
“We have a labor shortage. It’s difficult to do everything with robots. But we can provide solutions to help people work,” he added.
“We were able to continue technological development after Fukushima because there is one project after another (backed by the government) like garbage disposal, which requires our work,” Inujima pointed out.
“It is important to continue this work and not let it end,” he declared.
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