Enryu T-53 service robot cleans up Japan post-earthquake
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 10th 2007 8:02AM
posted Aug 10th 2007 8:02AM
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Is it really a robot if a man is in the driver's seat? Still, pretty cool.
No, its not really. Its just like any other machine that has a grapple on it. Wood chippers for example.
Is Gundam a robot?
No, its a mobile suit. it says it right in the name.
Technically, it is a robot, just not an autonomous one in the same way that servo-slave manipulators in science labs and nuclear power plants are robots. All of the above take user input, and then process that input into real world movement which is regulated by feedback coming from it's various sensors. Whereas a backhoe directly translates user input into movement, robotic slave systems like this thing actually think about what the user is asking while sampling the environment and then decide how best to do what the user wants. It's like a scaled up version of those new robotic limb replacements that have pressure sensors inside the fingerpads that allow the owner to grasp fragile objects like a paper cup or an egg firmly without crushing it.
I wonder how many operators have raised the claws up at coworkers and yelled "Geht away froom herr yoo Beetch!"
Is tagging a T-series robot "servant" really that good an idea? They're going through the numbers, and while 1000 seems a long way from 53..... >.>
If we're going to survive, we need to welcome our new robot overlords while planning our subterfuge against them.
What we really need, is a Power Loader like the one in Aliens that "Ripley" was using...but be able to use for rescue (lift cars, bridge pieces, building I-Beams...).
When I saw the pics I was hoping *someone* had mentioned the Aliens powerloader, good call sir!
It's just a modified fork-lift... those japanese are like an island of middle children, always trying to again attention with some new "invention" that does the same exact thing but has a cheesy robot head on it. Seriously, what's the big deal with this thing?
I tell ya what Japan needs for natural disasters, a team of wresters who naturally can pick up 220 easily with 1 arm... it would a crap load of the cost, plus maybe someone would get laid in the end.
I hope you're the next one who gets stuck under a pile of rubble in an earthquake, and someone tries to lift it off you with a forklift. Get the point of this machine now?
What part of this made you think it's a 'modified forklift,' was it the articulated arms? Or the two man operating team? Do you have any idea what a forklift looks like or what functions it is capable of?
These questions are, of course, all rhetorical because anyone reading already knows the answers.
Ah.. from the first few pics I thought it was a giant robot.. then i saw the man in it and realised its time for my coffee.
220 lbs for each arm is kind off weak. Realistically, a machine of that size should handle 2200 lbs at least. The only thing that would make up for this limitation is if it is super fast.
From the look of the arms, I would say 220 kg is about right
220Kg is 485 lbs. (I googled it for my fellow Americans. Our way or the highway)
'Hooo...Are wa Boomer da ne?'
I'm waiting for Galatea to show up.
Well, as I remember, robots can be operated several ways. Remotely (radio), directly (tethered), and autonomusly. Most of you folks appear to be spoiled by the concept of free-willed droids that you don't recognize an industrial robot design anymore. T-53 is exactly that. The fact that it has a "robot head" simply means that the design calls for a unit that can swivel independently of the rest of the structure, allowing for viewing in other directions while the main work is being done. That way nothing is damaged outside the field of vision.
I for one totally would cheer at the fact that ANY piece of machinery was coming to rescue me under a pile of fallen building, remotely operazted or not!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/earthquake_sets_japan_back_to_2147
Sorta reminds me of the house destroying robot from iRobot
GA GA GA GA GA GA GA GA GAOGAIGAR!
The next revision will be named as "HyoRyu" it will be painted in blue and it can be merged with the previous unit "Enryu" by Symmmetraaaaaal Dockiiiiiiiiiiiing(trademark) to form a better suited robot named as "ChoRyuJin" to aid civilian to face large scale chatastrophe as earthquakes,tsunami and hysteric mothers
talk about an overloard...
...and yes, I realize there's no "a" in "overlord." I need a nap.
YAY the autobots are here!!
This robot reminds me of Number 5 of Short Circuit fame.