5 ms·
Does anyone know how they extract the molten fuel? Sounds like they will use more robots, but if it's taken this long just to get a robot to see the target, how
by JonoW 9y ago
Does anyone know how they extract the molten fuel? Sounds like they will use more robots, but if it's taken this long just to get a robot to see the target, how on earth does a robot retrieve this stuff? Must be a career defining experience for these robotists, doing something that can really help an awful situation
- nielsbot 9y agoThat's basically what they say at the end of the article: “I’ve been a robotic engineer for 30 years, and we’ve never faced anything as hard as this,” said Shinji Kawatsuma, director of research and development at the center. “This is a divine mission for Japan’s robot engineers.”
- themodelplumber 9y ago> This is a divine mission for Japan’s robot engineers That is so cool. I'd love to see some kind of "lessons learned" summary from the robotics people.
- justinjlynn 9y agoUnfortunately, I'd imagine the vast majority of the helpful information learned will be kept a proprietary secret.
- adrianN 9y agoI could imagine that shielding electronics from radiation could fall under military secret.
- justinjlynn 9y agoThese days, once you get to the level where you can afford to develop them in the first place, there really isn't that much of a difference.
- nielsbot 9y agoIs that all that secret though? Can't you buy radiation-hardened versions of chips if you want to?
- nihonde 9y agoI saw a good documentary on NHK about the effort to enlist high schoolers and college students who might be able to think outside the box regarding this mission. My impression is that, no matter what happens in Fukushima, Japan is going to have a deep bench of robotics engineers in the coming decades.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- tigershark 9y agoThey don't have the slightest idea. It's an absolute miracle that they just managed to get a picture of the molten core after 6 years. Now probably they can start to think what to do, but my guess is that they don't have any idea at the moment.
- an_account 9y agoThe article says they’ve built a $100 million research center for the purpose of building radiation hardened robots for this environment. I’m sure as they learn techniques and technology for building these robots it will progress quicker. A small robot with a camera is the first step.