4/5/2004: Massive debris-clearing robot
 

http://cellar.org/2004/massiverobot.jpg

The Japanese, leading the way again in this sort of thing: it's a five-ton robot whose job it is to get through massive debris in the case of disaster, helping rescue workers get to people buried in it.

From the full story, each arm is capable of lifting 500 kilogrammes (1,100 pounds) and when they are fully extended the two pincers are 10 metres (33 feet) apart.

It will also frighten the crap out of any survivors, making them believe that our evil robot overlords have arrived in the form of the bots from the various "Robocop" sequels.

And the first of the overlords is named "tmsuk".

Holy FUCK that thing is scary. All it needs is miniguns to be out of manga or two fucking huge heavy repeaters and some paint stripper to be straight out of the Matrix.

500kg doesn't seem like enough for most situations though, when you're dealing with concrete slabs...

If that thing is able to work in conjunction with, say, a search dog, it will be a great assistive device for things like building collapse or multivehicle accidents.

It will be interesting to learn how it is operated, and if it is autonomous to any extent.

It's design does appear to allow it to be more effective than the usual assortment of construction equipment that is used for this kind of search and rescue/recovery work currently.

If you look closely there is deffinately a cabin in the front for a person.

Here is a close up of the operator.

Ouch?
 

Um, unless that's a dummy or something, the two orange dudes carrying the blue guy don't seem to be too concerned about his/her health...

I think TMSUK, no so gracefully, just swatted the mock victim with a storm door frame. Doh!

ah, my daughter's namesake

Ellen or Ripley? Either way, that's neat!

I used to work with a guy who dated her in college. Seriously. He had pictures of them together, it was definitely Sigourney.

Ripley Jane

Oh, Fuck!

I thought her name was JANE Ripley......shit...now I have to re-name my daughter!

fuck shit damn piss hell

Now there's a story to tell your daughter...

I reckon it'd be a bloody tight squeeze to fit anyone larger than a 6 year old in that 'cabin'.

Uh, have you ever meet a Japanese person? That's an extra-large cabin there! (This is not an insult, just a fact.)