Editor's Note: Robotics' response to the recent Japanese earthquake was a subject at a virtual event organized by Robotics Trends earlier this week (Click here to register and review presentations; note all presentations free to attendees).

An Associated Press story reported today on two separate incidents in which Japanese robots failed as they were attempting to facilitate repairs of the Fukushima reactor, which was damaged as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the island nation in March.

One robot, created by Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology and tasked with assisting in cases of nuclear and biological disasters, reportedly became stuck in the stairway of the Unit 2 reactor while on a mission "to set up a gauge to measure the contaminated water pooling in the basement," the news source said.

A second, separate, mishap occurred when a drone helicopter made a forced landing on the roof of the reactor, according to the AP.

SOURCE: AP