MEISTeR (Robot)

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The Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of Telecontrol Robot (MEISTeR) is a service robot by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). It was specifically designed to work at the devastated Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment, and electronics company

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant nuclear power plant in Japan

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 3.5-square-kilometre (860-acre) site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in the Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The chain of events caused radiation leaks and permanently damaged several reactors, making them impossible to restart. By political decision, the remaining reactors were not restarted.

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It was presented to the public on December 6, 2012. [1]

History

After the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, and the destruction of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the industry went on a quest of providing robots able to do dangerous work at the power plant. One such solution was the HAL exoskeleton. However, the HAL exoskeleton required a human pilot. On November 23, 2012, Toshiba presented a Tetrapod which failed during the presentation. [2]

HAL (robot) powered exoskeleton suit

The Hybrid Assistive Limb is a powered exoskeleton suit developed by Japan's Tsukuba University and the robotics company Cyberdyne. It is designed to support and expand the physical capabilities of its users, particularly people with physical disabilities. There are two primary versions of the system: HAL 3, which only provides leg function, and HAL 5, which is a full-body exoskeleton for the arms, legs, and torso.

Until recently, MHI had only create a household communication robot and the MARS-D robot. As a constructor of 20 nuclear plants in Japan, it was natural for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to respond to the crisis with their own robot. [1]

Design

The MEISTeR (German for master) is a twin-armed four-tracked robot. It is based on the Rabot robot and the experimental MARS-D robot, designed as a nuclear plant inspector. It stands 130 cm (4 ft 3 in), is 70 cm (2 ft 4 in) wide, 125 cm (4 ft 1 in) long, and weights in at 440 kg (970 lb). Its robotic arms have seven degrees of freedom(=seven axes) just like a human arm and can lift 15 kg (33 lb) each. Unlike the MARS-D robot MEISTeR is robust enough to withstand the radiation environment. The remote-controlled robot can attached with a variety of tools to its hands such as cutters and drills, clear obstacles, and pierce through concrete to check radiation levels. A special tool has been developed that can take samples from walls and concrete floors in contaminated areas with a depth up to 70 millimetres (2.8 in). It can move at up to 2 km/h (1.2 mph) and negotiates uneven terrain, including stairsteps up to 22 cm (8.7 in) on its four independently moving tank tracks. It has an expected working time of two hours. [1] [3]

In many scientific fields, the degrees of freedom of a system is the number of parameters of the system that may vary independently. For example, a point in the plane has two degrees of freedom for translation: its two coordinates; a non-infinitesimal object on the plane might have additional degrees of freedoms related to its orientation.

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