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 (robot), 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"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(=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"References
External links
{{Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Robots of Japan Assistive technology