Japan Has an Impressive New 40-Foot Robot. Its Mission: Repairing Train Tracks

Humanoid robots are here to stay. Although Boston Dynamics surprises the world every time one of its robots learns a new trick, many companies are developing human-shaped robots capable of sharing a work environment with humans. The most recent and curious example is Figure 01, which is working—in a testing capacity—at the BMW factory in California.

On the other side of the world, Japan has unveiled a giant, intimidating-looking robot to monitor the condition of its rail network. After years of development, it’s now in service.

A real Gundam. Currently, Japan’s fascination with robots doesn’t attract attention. Apart from the variety of robots developed in the country in recent decades, there are a number life-sized Gundams across the country. However, the new robot of the West Japan Rail Company is mighty in its own right. It also has a bit of Gundam in it since it requires a human to handle it.

Virtual reality. The robot has huge arms and a disproportionately small head, reminiscent of the Wall-E robot or Nintendo’s R.O.B. It’s simple because all it carries is a pair of cameras. An operator sitting in a truck, which is also the robot’s base, controls it. In other words, the operator wears a VR headset that gives them the same viewpoint as the robot and, in each of their hands, the controls to the arms of this mechanical assistant.

Up to 40 feet. This robot didn't skip leg day at the gym. In fact, it has no legs. Its base is the truck, where the operator sits and moves along the tracks, guiding the robot. There's a hydraulic arm at the back of the vehicle that supports the robot and gives it a total vertical reach of 40 feet.

Accessories. The robot’s hands are grippers that can grasp objects weighing up to 88 pounds. Still, the company can also attach accessories such as a paintbrush or a chainsaw. As a support robot, the West Japan Rail Company designed it to do one thing: Keep the rails in good condition. This includes removing heavy objects and maintaining the track by cutting tree branches or repainting certain areas.

The labor problem. If it’s nothing more than a robot with gardening and maintenance skills, couldn’t a human do the job? Yes, but Japan has a problem with that. It has been facing a so-called demographic winter for years, plagued by an aging population, and there’s no easy solution. That’s why some jobs are done entirely by robots. In fact, the problem of finding workers is one of the motivations behind the creation of this mechanical assistant.

According to The Guardian, the company claims this robot will help fill the labor shortage in an aging Japan. However, another benefit of the robot is that it will help prevent work-related accidents, such as falls or electric shocks while working on the tracks.

More to come. We’ll see how the company fares now that its new robot is out of the prototype phase. West Japan Rail president Kazuaki Hasegawa says, “In the future, we hope to use machines for all kinds of maintenance work on our infrastructure,” which is ambitious in a country where, as we said, the workforce for certain jobs isn’t exactly plentiful.

This article was written by Alejandro Alcolea and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.

Images | Japan Rail Company

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