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Think About Japanese Rescue Robots

Yamamoto Ryoji (Osaka Prefecture University College of Technology)

Hello everyone. Today, I'd like to talk about "Robots". Have you ever heard of rescue robots? They work in disaster areas. I am designing one in my school club to enter the Recue Robot Contest. It is a contest where some dolls located in a field replicating a disaster area are rescued. Robots need speed and agility to rescue dolls from the field. It is not easy for me to design and make them. The reason why I want to develop a robot is to help people.

As you know, on March 11th, a massive earthquake hit the northeastern region of Japan. Afterwards, a small American submarine robot was used to search for people who had been swept away by the tsunami. It had also examined some of the debris under the sea. Furthermore, the earthquake caused an accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. At this nuclear power plant, foreign robots were used. A question came to my mind when I heard about this news. Japan is a country that produces many robots, so why were Japanese robots not used? Japan has the latest technology and great skill to make them.

Japan was not indifferent about rescue robots, so there had been two projects to develop these robots. The first was right after an accident at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in America. The second followed a serious accident at a factory which processes uranium in Ibaragi. In both cases, some robots were developed using a large budget.

However, the first time, they stopped developing the robots after 8 years and the second time, they stopped within a year. They did this because it was believed that Japanese nuclear power plants were perfectly safe and that they would never have an accident. So the robots that had been developed were put on the shelf. Right after the March 11th accident, the Japanese government thought about using these robots but they were too big to work in the building. In the end, the Japanese government decided to use robots from other countries.

I disagree with the decisions that stopped the development twice. They started development right after an accident, and they broke it off after some time like they forgot about it. It is essential that these robots must be developed for unpredictable disasters. They can stand by just in case something happens. Japan is a disaster country so there have been many huge disasters. But if we don't learn the lesson then the same things will happen again. There are two merits for using Japanese robots. First, we can work quickly. If we use foreign robots, it takes a lot of time to transport robots from overseas to Japan. If we use Japanese robots, it takes less time to carry them to disaster areas. Speed is the most important thing for rescue operations. Second, we can demonstrate our technology to the world. We can demonstrate Japanese technology when we use and get results with our newest robots. As a result, it is likely that robots will become an important part of the export industry of Japan which has limited natural resources. Japan should be more dedicated to research and development of new robot technologies. It will be important for the Japanese robot industry. The way things have been going, it has become a waste of something valuable. I think that it is necessary for Japan to extend the field that can boost the world's robot industry.

What would have been different if we had Japanese robots? At that time, Japanese unmanned dump trucks and excavators were in use outside nuclear power plants to remove debris, but Japanese robots couldn't research the level of radiation or the state of the buildings. So, foreign robots were used. If we could have used Japanese robots, we would have known the state of the building much earlier. The accident in which some workers died could have been prevented. If we had known the damage level, nobody there would have been exposed to radiation.

We could probably fix problems before they got worse if we had Japanese robots. Japan has many great robot technologies, but now, we have to depend on the technologies from other countries. It is insignificant if it just exists. From now on, we have to change our policies and use what we make. The engineers of the future should put such technologies to practical use.

I want to become an engineer who will support such Japanese technology in the future. In addition, I want to design robots which can participate actively in any kind of disaster area. I want to make a robot that makes people say "This is the best rescue robot!" Thank you for listening.