Landslide Help from Roboclimber

Fighting landslides is dangerous work, but help from space is on its way.  Recent testing has proved that the Roboclimber, a robot built using innovations from Europe's space program, can help secure possible landslide sites.
 
Roboclimber weighs in at more than four tons and is one of the largest robots in the world.  In its first field test it was set to work on a near-vertical 30-meter high rocky wall - similar to a possible landslide location - in the beautiful valley of Alta Val Torre, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy.

Within minutes of being set up, Roboclimber had drilled a 33-foot (10-meter) deep hole into the rock-solid wall and inserted a stabilizing rod.

Using technology originally developed to control robots in space, the drilling and insertion of the rods was controlled from a safe distance using a computer and wireless link. 

Once each rod had been inserted, the operator moved the robot to the next position with the help of an onboard web-camera, and repeated the sequence of drilling and inserting rods.  The speed at which the robot inserted rods and secured the wall was much faster than current methods.

"It was amazing to see how easily this huge robot managed to operate on a very steep slope to secure a rocky mountain wall," said Guglielmo Berlasso, Director of the Civil Protection Office in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.  

Landslides are a big problem in Italy. More than 400 take place each year causing an estimated $1.6 billion of damage and often deaths. In the 20th century 5,939 people were declared dead or missing due to landslides.

-- Bjorn Carey

Credits: D'Appolonia / Roboclimber / European Space Agency