Development of labor-saving system for the maintenance of the telescopes under the extreme environment using a remote-controlled robot

Some of optical telescopes and millimeter- and submillimeter-wave telescopes are constructed on the top of the mountains which are higher than 4,000 meters above sea level, in order to prevent light from absorbing and diffusing and to avoid the influence of bad weather. These telescopes can observe light under much better condition in comparison to that on level ground, however, there are issues that labor efficiency is decreased by the low air pressure (less than two thirds of that on level ground) and the snowsuit and gloves which make difficult to move the body and fingers. Also, in case of a trouble, it may delay the initial response because of altitude and far distance from the base, so, as a result of this, the observation schedule may be forced to change. To solve these problems, we Mitsubishi Electric Corp. are tackling on development of the remote-controlled robot system which can make the labor efficiency in highland similar to that on level ground and minimize the traveling time to move the workers to the sites. In this paper, we introduce overview of the developed remote-controlled robot "DiaroiD (TM)" which can substitute the labor's work in the sites, and several demonstrations which the robot performed with this remote-controlled robot and its control system are introduced.