News

Osaka Institute of Technology, Faculty of Robotics & Design Engineering, Department of Robot Engineering — Real-World Robotics Laboratory

In recent years, "landslides" have been occurring with increasing frequency due to heavy rainfall disasters. Research is advancing on robots capable of operating in dangerous environments to prevent the catastrophic secondary disasters caused when earth and water blocked in mountainous areas suddenly give way. As part of the Cabinet Office–led Moonshot Research and Development Program, CuboRex's 'CuGo MEGA' has been adopted in a landslide disaster response robot system developed by a team led by Professor Koichi Osuka of Osaka Institute of Technology and Mr. Takahito Katayama (a graduate student at Osaka University) (Source: Osaka Institute of Technology Press Release).

We spoke with Professor Osuka and his team — who say "The reliability of the drivetrain determines the success or failure of the project" — about the background of the development and the deciding factors behind adopting CuGo MEGA.

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1. Background: Heading into "Near-Collapse" Sites Where Humans Cannot Enter

The Challenge of Unmanned Construction — With an Eye on 2050

The laboratory is working on a project to build infrastructure and respond to disasters using only robots in extreme environments where humans cannot approach. This is part of a project aiming to achieve "autonomous robot swarms for infrastructure construction" by 2050, and the team is currently in the demonstration experiment phase.

Responding to "River Blockages (Natural Dams)" — A Race Against Time

The target scenario is responding to "river blockages (natural dams)". When a landslide blocks a river and water begins to accumulate, the situation is extremely dangerous — a collapse could occur at any moment. "We need to install drainage pump vehicles and hoses as quickly as possible to drain the water. But the ground is muddy, and no one knows when it might collapse — meaning neither heavy machinery nor people can enter. We need a system where a swarm of small robots can carve a path and transport equipment into such a site," says Professor Osuka.

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2. System Overview: The "Robot Container" Concept — Detach and Combine

The research team developed a collaborative robot system in which necessary functions can be swapped in as "upper units." Its primary purpose is to comprehensively handle everything from remote situational assessment to drainage operations at mountain river-blocking disaster sites.

• Drivetrain: Crawler unit mobility base "CuGo MEGA" with high rough-terrain traversability
• Upper Units:
  • Drainage hose deployment robot (suppresses risk of rising water levels and debris flows at river blockage sites)
  • General-purpose mobile unit launch catapult, reconnaissance dual-track crawler, etc.
• Operation Method:
  • Multiple small robots cooperate, transporting materials to the front line in a container-relay fashion.
  • Upper units are combined or separated depending on the site conditions, enabling emergency recovery during the initial phase (1–2 weeks) after a disaster via remote control in locations inaccessible to conventional large construction machinery.

The highly evaluated traversability and product reliability of CuGo MEGA made it the choice for the foundational "drivetrain" of this system.

Demonstration experiment footage

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3. How It Came to Be Adopted: The Limits of In-House Robots and the Shift to Off-the-Shelf Products

"If the Drivetrain Breaks, the Experiment Is Over"

Mr. Katayama, the graduate student leading the project, looks back on the early struggles: "At first, we were building the drivetrain ourselves. But the landslide-simulated environment is extremely harsh — a mix of mud, water, and rocks. With our self-made crawlers, troubles were endless: chains would come off under load, and motors would seize up."

In robot research, failures in the locomotion mechanism are fatal. Before reaching the experiments they truly wanted to validate — "swarm control" and "work arms" — the team's time was being consumed by repairs to locomotion problems. That was the biggest challenge on the ground.

The Deciding Factor: "Overwhelming Traversability" and "Focus of Development Resources"

That's when the industrial crawler unit 'CuGo MEGA' came into the picture.

• Professor Osuka's assessment: "Building the 'drivetrain' in robot research takes enormous effort, but that's not the essence of the research. If we have the confidence that 'leaving the drivetrain to CuGo MEGA means it will absolutely move,' we can focus our energy on developing what's above — the brain (control and mechanisms). That's the biggest reason we adopted it."
• Mr. Katayama's assessment: "In rough-terrain driving tests at Kyushu University's test site (a field simulating landslide conditions), CuGo MEGA continued to operate reliably for years with virtually no maintenance, even as other prototype machines failed — proving extremely high reliability as an industrial product. CuGo MEGA demonstrated outstanding traversability even under our rough usage, and was truly the 'star student' supporting the entire system."

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4. Real-World Use Cases: Performance That Takes Rough Terrain in Stride

In the demonstration experiments, CuGo MEGA was fitted with independently developed units including a "general-purpose mobile unit launch catapult," "reconnaissance dual-track crawler," and "drainage hose deployment robot." It successfully traversed muddy slopes and piles of debris, accurately transporting materials to the target location.

The two key points of evaluation were:

1. Ready to use immediately: Can be used as a development base right out of the box, with easy attachment of upper units.
2. Toughness: Durability to keep operating in a near-maintenance-free state against mud, water, and impact.

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5. Future Outlook: Toward Realizing Fully Autonomous "Robot Swarms"

While remote operation is currently the primary mode, the team is working toward fully autonomous mobility using data obtained from CuGo MEGA. "Conditions at the site change from moment to moment. We envision a future disaster prevention system in which the robots themselves assess the terrain and multiple units cooperate to complete drainage operations via the shortest route — and CuGo MEGA is an indispensable partner toward realizing that future," says Mr. Katayama.

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【Editor's Note】

The harshness of disaster sites is one of the greatest obstacles in robot research. Especially in time-critical missions like "river blockages," a failure in the locomotion mechanism not only halts the core research to be validated — it directly translates to delays in work to prevent secondary disasters.

In environments where "not stopping" is the paramount requirement, CuGo MEGA was chosen as a "trusted platform" — one that allows the research team to concentrate their resources on developing the "brain of the robot": control systems, swarm AI, and unique work units. This case demonstrates that in extreme-environment technology development, the reliability of the foundational drivetrain is a critical factor that can determine the success or failure of an entire project.

▼ Profiles

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For CuGo MEGA M2 product information, click here.

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【Related Links】

• Osaka Institute of Technology: Press Release on Landslide Disaster Response Robot System Development
• News article on landslide disaster response robots

Photos provided by: Osaka Institute of Technology