Fukushima — where are the Parrots? | Hacker News Reader

Fukushima — where are the Parrots?

metamodern.com

13 pointsph0rque13 comments

This seems like the kind of armchair quarterbacking that would be proffered by someone experiencing the world exclusively through a Boing Boing RSS feed. We might as well ask, "Fukushima -- where are the 3D printers?"

On the other hand, this post is exactly what I envisioned when patio11's NYT essay called for Americans' "expertise in bringing the situation at the nuclear facilities under control" in place of donations.

I was more thinking along the lines that the GE engineers who designed the plant, etc, would help out. Incredibly, in the first few days after the quake the military was on top of things but there were rumblings at the NRC of "Let's distance ourselves from this. If something goes wrong, we don't want blowback." That got mostly fixed a wee bit before it went to press. (Newspapers: yesterday's news, today!)

I don't know about Japan, but in the US it would take a pickup truck full of paper and 6 months of review committees before an official agency could actually locate a GSA approved vendor and buy a Parrot drone. Parrot might not even employ enough minorities to be allowed to sell directly to the US government.

Yeah, sarcasm. The point is that a G-man can't just run down to Toys-R-Us, grab one and send it on in. Even the very logically minded would at least want to stop and have a think if there's a possibility then sending in a little toy might do more harm than good if something goes wrong. I personally have no clue what large amounts of ionizing radiation does to wifi.

Considering how quickly the US military was able to deploy and utilize their flying intelligence drones in the area this week, I expect that extraordinary circumstances cut the amount of required paperwork extraordinarily.

Also, these AR Drones aren't up to the task.

That'd be this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Ha...

It took a decade to develop and has been in use by the military since 2006. Its easy for the government to use what its already got, its very hard for them to start using something brand new, no matter how good it is.

But you couldn't be more right about the AR drone. I can't even get it to work in the back yard from the front. I think the point was, with all of the cool robotics floating around today, why isn't there a lot more of it at the reactor site helping out?

As for the government shortcutting paperwork in extraordinary circumstances, I think our performance after Hurricane Katrina probably best illustrates how we do with this:

"Hundreds of firefighters, who responded to a nationwide call for help in the disaster, were held by the federal agency in Atlanta for days of training on community relations and sexual harassment before being sent on to the devastated area. The delay, some volunteers complained, meant lives were being lost in New Orleans. " http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/national/nationalspecial/1...

"(As you may know, Japan has displayed a special sort of organizational paralysis in this crisis, but wouldn’t it be surprising if “toys” like these were used in an incident managed by Very Serious People anywhere in the world?)"

I'm pretty sick of these sorts of comments. I absolutely do NOT know that the Japanese authorities have failed to meet expectations as far as their responsiveness to this disaster. I know it strokes the pleasure center of some people to regurgitate wherever possible stereotypes of hiveminded, hidebounded, unimaginative Japanese, but let's at least wait until some actual evidence emerges of their failure to take initiatve in dealing with 1) the worst earthquake / tsunami they have experienced in modern history 2) the second most catastrophic nuclear disaster ever, in the span of two weeks.

Ionizing radiation - messes with the electronics and makes things that aren't specifically built for that kind of environment break in unexpected ways.

"iPhone controlled, resistant to multiply-lethal radiation doses (as best I can tell)"

Would be a critical question, anyway.

Uh... Parrot drone range... 50 meters??? Does that answer the question?

The robot that they're using? 1 kilometer range. Radiation and environment sensors, stereoscopic cameras, sample collection arm... all radiation hardened...

http://inhabitat.com/japan-sends-monirobo-robot-into-nuclear...

The reason they aren't using toys is cause its a toy.

Even if you had a continuous wifi connection, they only fly for about 10 minutes before the batteries run out.

Thank you! I've been wondering that myself. Two possibilities occur to me: (a) would one of those ignite a pocket of hydrogen? (b) what are the risks of a lost one (one winding up ditched in the equipment)?

I bet it's highly susceptible to non-lethal radiation such as short microwave bursts. I'd bet you I could take one of those things out with the parts in my microwave and a small capacitor.

Also, since we're dealing with nuclear technology there is going to be lots of EM shielding, wifi tends not to work so well with shielding in place. Especially large amounts of water.

Lots of denigrating comments, but its not a bad idea for use in search and rescue.

A big problem rescuers were having was simply being blocked by so much debris. Nearly impossible on foot to navigate some rubble. Also, its slow. Imagine a team of rescuers who had a set of Parrot-like drones they could carry and launch from their backs. They would be able to immediately survey areas in their immediate surroundings that might be very difficult or dangerous to get to on foot. If something is seen via drone that looks like it might hold survivors, then they can start concentrating on that. This could have been done immediately after the earthquake and tsunami with the commercial Parrots available on the market. With drones specially designed for search and rescue, imagine longer flying times, better durability, better nav and recognition software, etc. But that wouldn't have prevented today's drones from being immediately useful, had they been available and trained for.

I do take issue with the author's comment: "Japan has displayed a special sort of organizational paralysis in this crisis". I wish he would clarify this. I've been watching NHK every night, reading a lot, reading what patio11 has said, and talking to friends in Tokyo. Their response to this collective set of disasters has been organized. There are over 200k people in shelters, being taken care of. Meanwhile here in the U.S. we couldn't mobilize for days to help people in one city, New Orleans. In Japan, everyone seems to have done what they train for since birth. The loss of 10,000+ people is horrendous, but it would be much, much worse if Japan wasn't as prepared as it is.

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