Japanese rail company rolls out VR-piloted robot worker

https://newatlas.com/robotics/jr-west-gundam-maintenance-robot/

by clouddrover • 4 years ago

68 15 4 years ago

A bit like a Centaur robot but with telescoping. Great design for the job.

alex_duf• 4 years ago

The video in the tweet shows a big latency between the head movement of the operator and the head movement of the mech, I assume this is making the pilot rather motion sick.

They may benefit from using a 360 Camera and pan using software rather than have it actually actuate the head of the robot.

_wolfie_• 4 years ago

But this is way more cool though.

sterlind• 4 years ago

does the lag actually have to be there? the head is presumably really light; it shouldn't be too difficult to make it move as fast as a human head, right?

konart• 4 years ago

Gundam in the title is an absolute clickbait... as expected

mensetmanusman• 4 years ago

This.

Gundam is an acronym:

“ Genetic on Universal Neutraly Different Alloy-nium Mobile - suit”

And the article is about stainless steel exoskeleton robots, (SSEx?)

mucio• 4 years ago

With the introduction of piloted robots for civil work, there will be also accidents and attempts to use them for criminal purpose. Quickly the Tokio Metropolitan Police will introduce a Special Vehicle Section equipped with patrol labor (instead of just patrol cars) or Patlabors.

You can read more about this initiative on the official Tokio Metropolitan Police page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Patlabor_episodes).

NoOneNew• 4 years ago

Thus, we return to the proper timeline.

needle0• 4 years ago

This sounds more like the "Labors" from Mobile Police Patlabor -- those were actually used in-universe for construction/maintenance work. (But of course, all humanoid robots are Gundams to the uninitiated, much like how all game consoles were Nintendos to the '90s mom)

Human Machinery, the company noted in the article responsible for the remote controlled robot arm system, has a pretty cool Japanese name: Jinki Ittai (人機一体). It's a play on the old Japanese term Jinba Ittai (人馬一体), which refers to how an experienced horserider can ride with such synergy with their horse as to appear as if they are one. The company name replaces the letter for "horse"(馬) with "machine"(機).

In fact, their official website seems to have their English name written much more literally, as Man-Machine Synergy Effectors, Inc. https://jinki.jp/

hiccuphippo• 4 years ago

The way the operator controls the arms reminds me of Evangelion. Luckily for him his nervous system is not connected to the robot.

jp0d• 4 years ago

Reminds me of this Veritasium episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1_OpWiyijU

throwaway2016a• 4 years ago

Reminds me a lot of surgical robotics just at a larger (physically) scale. We went from tiny tweezers and scalpels to giant grabbing arms.

null-shell• 4 years ago

That's not a Gundam!

tetsusaiga• 4 years ago

I was really hoping I was about to see the Exia fixing trains here lol

imtringued• 4 years ago

Now that I think about it, those super robot pilots never use VR nor do their helmets support AR.

Japanese rail company rolls out VR-piloted robot worker

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