Nuclear Energy Systems Department, Business Division, Energy & Environment
Remote-controlled robots are required for surveillance and work in areas where levels of
radioactivity are too high or that have been devastated by disasters. In such locations, robots require
high traction performance, even over precarious terrain such as stairs and debris. Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and the Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT) signed a technical cooperation
agreement, and MHI started the manufacture and sales of the Sakura II robot based on its
predecessor Quince developed by CIT. Quince is a mobile robot that showed high traction
performance at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Leveraging this robotic technology,
MHI developed the MHI-HERCULeS and delivered it to the Nuclear Emergency Assistance
Center of the Japan Atomic Agency (J-NEACE), which manages and operates equipment and
materials such as robots necessary to assist power plants in urgent situations due to disasters. MHI
is also developing an exploration robot that has the equivalent traction performance and the
capability to work under flammable-gas-filled conditions such as in tunnel disasters.
