One of the six firms that compose the Japan Railways Group, West Japan Railways (West JR), has showcased a massive “humanoid robot” that will be used to maintain heavy machinery on its lines.  

The tool, which has not yet been named, is defined as “multifunctional railway heavy machinery for railway equipment maintenance.”  

The new robot is a part of the collaboration between IT and electrical infrastructure company Nippon Signal Co. and robotics technology developer Jinki Ittai Co.  

From this month, the massive machine with gigantic limbs, a crude, disproportionately small head resembling Wall-E, and coke bottle-sized eyes installed on a truck that can move on tracks will be utilized for network maintenance within the company.  

Its operator controls its strong limbs and hands remotely while seated in a cockpit atop the truck, effectively “seeing” via the robot’s eyes through cameras.  

With a vertical reach of 12 meters (40 feet), the machine can wield a paintbrush, operate a chainsaw, and move things weighing up to 40 kg (88 lb) using different arm attachments.  

According to the company, the robot’s primary duties for the time being will be painting the metal frames that support the wires above trains and cutting tree branches that fall over railroads.  

“In the future, we hope to use machines for all kinds of maintenance operations of our infrastructure,” and this should provide a case study for how to deal with the labour shortage, company president Kazuaki Hasegawa told a recent press conference. 

Source: The Guardian