Enryu gets busy in Niigata
No this isn't demonstrable proof of the rise of the machines, it's Tmsuk's Enryu robot in action in long-suffering Niigata Prefecture, in tests designed to show if he's useful enough to help dig people out of houses collapsed by snow, rescue cars from drifts, etc.
Enryu is a 3.5m, 5-ton rescue robot with two arms capable of lifting 500kg each that was originally designed for rescuing people from earthquake-hit or blazing buildings. A bunch of isolated villages in Niigata were smashed around by a horrible earthquake in October 2004 and recently record amounts of snowfall have killed 102, many of them in the same region. If Enryu passes his tests, he could be put to practical use as early as next year.
(Via Mainichi Daily News)
Posted by Paul Kallender on February 3, 2006 12:47 PM