Crazy Japanese: Awesome Robot
This has go to be the most awesome robot ever made. (I know it's not really a robot. It's directly controlled by people.)
More pictures here:
http://fast-world.com/index.php/Tech/Giant-Rescue-Robot.html
The news about robotics advances in Japan.
One company definitely to watch for is TMSUK, which has quite an
impressive line-up of robots for various applications, with some even
in use on campuses throughout Japan. The biggest of the bunch is
T-52 model: Is this robot on a mission to seek and destroy improperly
parked cars? Certainly the idea has been around long enough:T-52
however, is not a nemesis to cars.
Pink Tentacle reports:
"This is the giant rescue robot called T-52 Enryu ("Rescue Dragon").
It has a bulldozer-like base and a 5-meter long arms that can lift cars
stuck in the snow. In the tests T-52 Enryu showed off its avalanche
prevention skills by removing accumulated snow from the edge of a
cliff. The robot also demonstrated its ability to extract a car buried
under a bank of snow." T-52 Enryu stands 3.45 meters tall and weighs 5 tons.
More pictures here:
http://fast-world.com/index.php/Tech/Giant-Rescue-Robot.html
Comments
Seriously though, wouldn't a rescue machine like that be cost prohibitive? Robotics are extremely expensive. Just a regular back-ho(sp?) or bulldozer is expensive enough and they only have (at most) a dozen hydraulic actuators.
Hydraulics are also very slow (without having multiple hydraulic systems. high and low). Until there's a viable alternative to hydraulics (I like synthetic muscles) I can't see this type of technology taking hold.
Truckasaurus could own that bitch-bot.