In March 2011, Japan was hit by a catastrophic earthquake that caused a terrible tsunami. Thousands of people died, and billions of dollars in damage made it clear that this disaster is one of the worst in modern history. For several weeks the eyes of the world were fixed on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Its security systems were unable to cope with the damage caused by the tsunami, and the chances were that a catastrophic reactor meltdown would spread radiation to several countries, as it did at Chernobyl in the 1980s. Heroic attempts to save the reactor, including dumping seawater into its core, helped prevent a major disaster. Hundreds of thousands of people are still being evacuated from the disaster area, and infrastructure restoration and clean-up will take hundreds of billions of dollars and many years.
Since radiation is extremely dangerous to humans, the natural solution during the Fukushima disaster was to send robots to monitor radiation levels and try to start the cleanup process. But deep in the heart of the reactor core, technology optimists have faced an obstacle that even optimism has not helped them overcome. The radiation fried the schematics of the robots sent there, even those that were specially built to cope with the disaster at Fukushima. The nuclear station was slowly turning into a robot graveyard. Although some of them were able to measure the radiation levels around the station - and recently a robot was able to find straightened uranium fuel at the heart of the disaster - hopes that they could play an important role in clearing the station began to fade.
In Tokyo's neon Shibuya district, the lights shine brighter than the sun at night. In the karaoke booths on the twelfth floor - because everything is on the twelfth floor - businessmen bawl popular songs. This place may seem to be the most artificial on Earth; all senses will be blinded by technical optimism. Usually, the pictures of this place symbolize futurism and modernity.
Japan has long been famous for its love of future technologies. Now, for example, tech giant Softbank, led by founder Masayoshi Son, is investing billions in the country's technological future, including plans for the world's largest solar farm.
When Google sold Boston Dynamics in 2017, Softbank added it to its portfolio, along with renowned robots Nao and Pepper. Some may think that Sleep is gambling with robotics because he is taking on a project that even Google did not succeed in, but this man lost almost everything in the dot-com crash in the 2000s. The fact that even this collapse did not rob him of his optimism and his faith in technology speaks for itself. But how long will this last?
The failure of Japanese robots to cope with the aftermath of the Fukushima accident has created a crisis in the industry. Disasters like this are like the final test for robots. If robots are incapable of helping people in extreme conditions, what's the use? Initially, manufacturing a humanoid robot would be very expensive, and the robot itself would be much less capable than a human. Building such a robot would not be economically viable. It is much more profitable to build a robot that will cope with work that is too dangerous for humans. But as Fukushima has shown, robots of even one of the most advanced nations in the world are not ready to replace people in the most difficult conditions.
Nowhere has this crisis been felt more than at Honda. The company developed ASIMO, which surprised the world in 2000, and continues to develop robots. But for all the technological advances, Honda knew ASIMO was too unreliable for the real world.
It was Fukushima that caused a change in Honda's approach to robotics. Two years after the disaster, it became known that Honda was developing a disaster robot, and in October 2017 its prototype was first presented to the public. Remarkably, the creators decided not to give the robot sleight of hand, but instead provided it with remote-controlled tools that, if necessary, will be used in emergency conditions.
Promotional video:
This shift from humanoid entertainment robots like ASIMO to useful rescue robots has reverberated around the world.
In 2015, also inspired (so to speak) by the Fukushima disaster and the shortage of operational robots, DARPA tested humanoid robots in a variety of environments that could prove useful in cases of accident or disaster. Such robots must, for example, drive cars, open doors and climb stairs. ATLAS from Boston Dynamics, Korean HUBO, as well as CHIMP have already shown what they can do when necessary - for example, stand up on their own after a fall. It just sounds funny - it looks much more interesting.
Nonetheless, the DARPA Robotics Challenge has shown us how far robots are from being even a little useful to us, let alone superior to us in many ways. Many robots need hours to complete a simple task like climbing stairs. Even teaching a robot to cross a threshold is no longer easy.
Fukushima may have launched a makeover in futuristic Japan, but before robots can fully enter our daily lives, they will have to prove their worth (and usefulness). Drone robots, meanwhile, are already doing quite well with surveillance at a disaster site. But building a robot that can handle perfectly on land is another matter entirely.
Building a humanoid robot is expensive. If these expensive machines (which can run into millions of dollars) fail to help in the crisis, people will begin to question the very need to invest in robotics. This could exacerbate the crisis of confidence in robots among the Japanese, who are beginning to rely on robots as a solution to their aging crisis. The Japanese government has already invested $ 44 million in robot development.
But if the robots fail the exam, they will have serious questions. In Tokyo's Akihabara district, you can see all kinds of bright, shiny robotic toys that dance, sell, and entertain crowds from all over the world. However, robots must be partners, helpers, rescuers.
Ilya Khel
