TALON Robot Rescuer

The dangerous situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan is making it difficult for workers there to get the damaged nuclear reactors under control after the major earthquake and tsunami there. Enter the TALON robot.

The robot, which usually carries machine guns and rocket launchers has been refitted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory with digital cameras, a GPS device, and radiological instruments in order to allow scientists and plant workers and other officials to see what’s exactly going on in the heavily damaged reactors, with radiation levels much too dangerous to allow humans to enter.

Modified TALON robot

The plant’s reactors had the power for their cooling system knocked out in the March 11 quake and the backup generators flooded by the tsunami that followed. This has caused a partial meltdown at the plant, with officials upgrading the situation to number 7, the maximum danger level, on par with Chernobyl.

The robot joins several others that will map the radiation levels in the plant, including two similarly-modified TALON robots that will help assess the situation.

Another Walyou post shows a robot solving a Rubik’s cube, though that’s a very safe task for humans to do, if not for their mental health. Another example of a robot at work is the FRIDA compact robot.

Via: Engadget