When disaster strikes, there are places you — no human, really — wants to be. After the Fukushima disaster, for example, there was a bunch of fatally radioactive ground where no sane man would dare venture. And with inventions like Toshiba’s new quadroped, disaster-investigating robot, they wouldn’t have to.
The new four-legged robot, designed specifically with Fukushima in mind, is intended to carry out investigation deemed to dangerous for humans. It moves at a crawl (just over 1 kph), but that’s in part because it’s dragging along all kinds of equipment needed to accurately survey a disaster zone. The robot is controlled remotely, battery powered, and can go on sorties of up to two hours, collecting data about contamination levels and carefully negotiating rubble.
He may be a slowpoke, but it’s hard to criticise when he could very well be saving your arse. And on the brightside, at least you can out run him when the robots turn on us. [Damn Geeky]