Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ MHI-MEISTeR to work at the nuclear plant, Fukushima. Credit: Mitsubishi/Big Globe.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has developed a robot that will help in the restoration work at the wrecked nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan.

The robot is called the MHI-Meister (Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of Tele Control Robot) and actually, consists of several robots that MHI has developed over the years.

The robot is 440 kilos (970 pounds) heavy and 130 centimeters tall (4 feet, 3 inches). It has human-like arms capable of lifting objects of up to 15 kilos (33 pounds).

Its arms are designed to bend much like a human arm. It is also able to move in uneven terrain and has a maximum speed of about 2 km/h (1,24 mph).

Mitsubishi Heavy began developing robots for use in nuclear disasters following the deadly and critical 1999 accident at the JCO Co., uranium processing facility in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. The robot called MARS-D and other nuclear robots have since been developed during the following decade.

There are already several robots in place at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, developed by Honda, Toshiba, and Brock.

Check out the video below of the MHI-MEISTer robot.