The Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of Telecontrol Robot (MEISTeR) is a service robot by the
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...
(MHI). It was specifically designed to work at the devastated
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The ...
.
It was presented to the public on December 6, 2012.
["Mitsubishi unveils two-armed nuclear plant bot"]
''CNET.com'',7 December 2012
History
After the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, and the destruction of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the industry went on a quest of providing robots able to do dangerous work at the power plant. One such solution was the
HAL exoskeleton. However, the HAL exoskeleton required a human pilot. On November 23, 2012, Toshiba presented a Tetrapod which failed during the presentation.
["Toshiba nuclear robot can't make it through demo"]
''CNET.com'', 23 November 2012
Until recently, MHI had only create a household communication robot and the MARS-D robot. As a constructor of 20 nuclear plants in Japan, it was natural for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to respond to the crisis with their own robot.
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Design
The MEISTeR (German for master) is a twin-armed four-tracked robot. It is based on the Rabot robot and the experimental MARS-D robot, designed as a nuclear plant inspector. It stands , is wide, long, and weights in at . Its robotic arms have seven degrees of freedom
Degrees of freedom (often abbreviated df or DOF) refers to the number of independent variables or parameters of a thermodynamic system. In various scientific fields, the word "freedom" is used to describe the limits to which physical movement or ...
(=seven axes) just like a human arm and can lift each. Unlike the MARS-D robot MEISTeR is robust enough to withstand the radiation environment. The remote-controlled robot can attached with a variety of tools to its hands such as cutters and drills, clear obstacles, and pierce through concrete to check radiation levels. A special tool has been developed that can take samples from walls and concrete floors in contaminated areas with a depth up to . It can move at up to and negotiates uneven terrain, including stairsteps up to on its four independently moving tank tracks. It has an expected working time of two hours.["Mitsubishi Heavy Industries reveals nuclear plant inspection robot MHI-MEISTeR"]
''Gizmag.com'', 6 December 2012
References
External links
{{Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Robots of Japan
Assistive technology