West Japan Railway’s new humanoid employee may resemble a malevolent robot from 1980s sci-fi, but its purpose is far from sinister. Designed for tasks like painting and gardening, this machine features a distinctive head and eyes akin to coke bottles, mounted on a rail-compatible truck for maintenance work across the company’s network.
Starting this month, an operator stationed in the truck’s cockpit controls the robot remotely, using cameras to see from its perspective. The robot boasts impressive capabilities, with a vertical reach of 12 meters (40 feet) and strong limbs capable of lifting objects up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds). It can perform tasks like trimming tree branches along rails and painting metal frames that support cables above trains.
According to the company, this technology aims to address Japan’s aging workforce and mitigate accidents such as falls from heights or electrical shocks.
“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.
