The robot looks down at the train tracks, its metallic arms resembling something out of the “Mobile Suit Gundam” anime series. In the cockpit below, its human operator maneuvers the robot into place, seeing through its "eyes" above as it approaches the high-voltage wires.
In response to Japan's labor shortage, West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) is developing humanoid robots like this one to handle maintenance and construction work, specializing in dangerous places. The railway operator hopes to officially put the robots to work in the spring of 2024.
“The operator steers the robot from the cockpit (near the ground) so they can work safely on tasks high in the air,” said JR West President Kazuaki Hasegawa during a news conference last month.
The railway, which is headquartered in Osaka and operates an extensive network across western Honshu, has been mechanizing routine maintenance jobs that poses a risk to workers, such as checking the wires above train cars and other electrical jobs.
But the company also wanted to increase its usage of machinery in other capacities, especially in places that can be hard to reach or dangerous, such as cliffs, slopes and areas near powerful electric currents.
JR West plans to reduce the amount of human staff doing dangerous tasks by around 30%, with the aim of reducing workplace accidents from falls and electric shocks.
The robot itself is attached to a crane truck that travels along the tracks. The operator controls the robot from the truck’s cockpit, monitoring the operation through goggles that carry a video feed from a camera attached to the robot's upper half. From the cockpit, the operator's responsive controls can sense weight, resistance and other sensations from the robot's arms, allowing for a more intuitive operation, Hasegawa said.
The hands can hold a variety of materials regardless of an their shape, enabling it to complete tasks high above the ground and better ensure a safe work environment for employees at ground level.
The robot was jointly developed by JR West, Man-Machine Synergy Effectors Inc. — also known as Jinki-Ittai, which specializes in bipedal walking humanoid robots — and Nippon Signal Co., a provider of advanced railroad infrastructure services.
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