Drones and Robots for
Ecologically Sustainable Societies project(DRESS project)

On Thursday, January 17th, 2019, "symposium on human resource development, academic-industrial collaboration, robot performance evaluation ~kick-off of human resource development lecture~” was held at the Minami-Soma City Citizens Information Exchange Center in Fukushima.

At the symposium, we explained the performance evaluation method for robots (including drones), the current status and utilization method of "Fukushima Robot Test Field (RTF)" that anticipates the opening of all facilities in 2020, and the human resource development policy that can carry out robot performance evaluation.

- Major contents of symposium –

●　Overview and speakers introduction of “special lecture centered on NEDO project related to human resource development, comprehensive development (including academic-industrial collaboration, robot performance evaluation method)”

From 2018 to 2020, we will hold an NEDO special lecture to foster innovators from the perspective of launching new businesses. In this lecture, you will learn the technologies, designs, and business knowledge needed to innovate with robots.

????　Overview and schedule of NEDO special lecture

As the kick-off of the lecture, we introduced overview and speakers.

Introducing the special lecture

NEDO special lecture speakers are listed below.

Hereafter, we plan to recruit participants from companies which want to acquire robot performance evaluation skills as individuals or as organizations.

NEDO Special Lecture Office / Contact: Manufacture Science and Technology Center (MSTC)

●　Keynote speech

At the beginning of the symposium, Mr. Tom Haus, a staff member of the Los Angeles City Fire Department, gave a keynote speech on robot utilization, performance evaluation methods, availability of drones, and issues at disaster sites in the United States.

"It's very important to know the situation in the event of a disaster", Tom said. In order to identify robots that can actually be used, he introduced following the US efforts: “firefighting and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are jointly formulating Standard Test Methods For Response Robots (STM),” “at the time of formulation, we use a facility called Disaster City in Texas, which is a test field that reproduces a disaster site”.

????　Disaster City

He also said "RTF is a globally valuable place where able to test robots in various scenarios (in land, over water/underwater, and air)". RTF is expected to become an international base for future robot development and human resource development.

Mr. Tom Haus gives a speech

*Mr. Tom Haus
As a Los Angeles City Fire Department staff member, he led various firefighting and disaster sites including 9/11. Also, He is a fire and disaster response robot expert who involves in the development and performance evaluation of robots used by the fire department. Los Angeles City Fire Department Captain. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 1 Search Team Manager. Rapid Flood Rescue Team Leader.