[Tyler]

iRobot Sends Military Robots to Japan
     

Writing for AolNews,
Lauren Frayer provides a clearer view than has
appeared in other, similar articles, regarding
iRobot's
donation of four robots, a mix of
PackBots
and
Warriors,
for use in helping to bring the emergency at
Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant to an end.
Frayer quotes Tim Trainer of iRobot as saying
We've got some technology that isn't pointedly designed for the specific
[nuclear] mission, but we're going to send that forward and try to understand, 'Could we
provide some value to the Japanese, to try to mitigate this horrible situation?' ...
Certainly, radiation will have some impact on the circuits. ... Some of this will be
understanding what it might be like to operate in such conditions. To be quite honest
with you, some of this will be experimentation. ... We are in the robotics business, and I
think we'll learn a lot from applying our technology a bit differently here. The hope is
that we will become smarter as a result of this.
Trainer also said that (at the time of the interview)
he didn't know whether the donated robots had already
been sent into the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, or
when they might be. Such decisions are entirely under
the control of Japanese authorities.
Update:
This article on the U.K. website Daily Mail
includes two photos of PackBots at work and
two closeups of a Warrior.

   

http://robots.net/article/3131.html
     

[Art]

I just hope they are able to locate some wall to bounce off of to find their way around. That's how they clean rooms with their vacs!!

Good luck!

[Freddy]

Maybe something like would be useful there too.