automatons - Venerable Enriyu Robot to the Rescue at Fukushima?

Get our top stories

follow gizmodo

Venerable Enriyu Robot to the Rescue at Fukushima?

Venerable Enriyu Robot to the Rescue at Fukushima?The Fukushima nuclear disaster, while certainly not short on tragedy, is also not short of robots, with a host of the automated helpers having been deployed there already. Now mighty Enriyu is set to join them, massive arms and all.

Weighing in at massive 5-tons, Enriyu ("Rescue Dragon") was originally created in response to the 1995 Kobe earthquake as a search and rescue bot, although it was not put into action until 2007.

Those two limbs can lift more than 200 lbs. and are controlled directly via the man-sized cab, seen at right in the image of Enriyu above just before it smashes two human test subjects with a log, or by a portable suitcase-sized, seven camera feed-quipped control panel. [Kyodo News via CNET]

Contact Jack Loftus:
Follow automatons on Gizmodo
The Gadget Guide
More Stories…