Yuki-taro is an environmentally-friendly autonomous snowplow robot. Yuki-taro measures 160 x 95 x 75 cm and weighs 400 kg. With the help of a GPS and a pair of video cameras, the self-guided robot seeks out snow and gobbles it up into its mouth. Yuki-taro compresses the snow into hard blocks measuring 60 x 30 x 15 cm, which Yuki-taro expels from its rear end. The blocks can then be stacked and stored until summer, when they can be used as an alternative source of refrigeration or cooling.
Developed by researchers from the Niigata Industrial Creation Organization, Research and Development, Inc., Niigata Institute of Technology, Yamagata University and the Industrial Research Institute of Niigata Prefecture. In 2006, Yuki-taro received a Good Design Award in the small-to-medium sized enterprise category.
Researchers continue to work on reducing Yuki-taro’s size, weight and cost, and they hope to make it commercially available in five years at a price of less than $8,300.
Researchers continue to work on reducing Yuki-taro’s size, weight and cost, and they hope to make it commercially available in five years at a price of less than $8,300.
via Gizmodo:Robots & Pink Tentacle
