Examination of Practical Utility of Remotely Controlled Robots in Disasters

The Technical Office of Kyushu (in the Kyushu Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) and Fujita Corporation have jointly developed a remotely controlled robot that can be rapidly installed in conventional commercially-available construction vehicles such as backhoes, bulldozers and crawler dump trucks.

This paper examines the practical utility (operability and performance) of the portable robot system when mounted in a backhoe and crawler dump truck. Testing was undertaken at a site where accumulated volcanic ash (caused by the eruption of Mt. Sakurajima, Kagoshima Prefecture, and subsequent mudslides) was being removed from around the Kurokami River. This report also examines long-distance operation of the remotely controlled robot using a wireless local area network (WLAN) with the aim of increasing the operational area of the robot-controlled vehicles.