Game pads answer call of duty in disaster missions

TOKYO - Video game pads have found another more serious use: to manipulate robots engaged in decommissioning work at the disaster-stricken Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant.

Younger workers who have used game pads to play video games at home can operate them easily and take full command of tricky operations, such as in areas humans cannot reach.

"They're relatively cheap and available for several thousand yen, plus they easily cope with small movements," said Hiroaki Anekawa, 60, senior project manager at Mitsubishi's Advanced Nuclear Plant & Fuel Cycle Engineering Department.

"Young workers in their 20s and 30s are good at handling them."

Atox Co, a nuclear power plant maintenance company, is currently developing a robotic arm for removing obstacles from reactor buildings and has started using a game pad to maneuver the arm.

"We can develop[the game pad] at a low cost, rather than creating one from scratch," a senior employee said.

A robot that inspected the containment vessels at the Fukushima plant's Nos 2 and 3 reactors was operated by a game pad. According to Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corp, "it helped stabilize the robot's posture in underwater operations by allowing the user to subtly moderate the pressure being applied by their finger".

Shigeo Hirose, a professor emeritus at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and robotics specialist, said: "The thing about game pads is that they ergonomically fit people's hands, meaning they're good for maneuvering things like robots."

Useful for disaster relief

Game pads are also shining in disaster-relief missions and military operations.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency and electronics maker Mitsubishi Electric TOKKI Systems Corp jointly developed a research robot that can be dispatched to disaster sites. A store-bought game pad maneuvers a camera and poisonous gas detector.

The United States Navy's USS Colorado fast-attack submarine, which went into service in March, features a camera that works as a periscope. It is maneuvered via a game pad from Microsoft's Xbox game console.

The game pad is popular with younger sailors who play Xbox video games.

The US Navy's official blog notes, "Colorado is the first submarine operating from the start with the gaming controllers".

The Japan News/ann

(China Daily 05/09/2018 page11)