Mr. Future

Maruading insects are destroying your home. Sightless, relentless, and nigh-undetectable, termites gnaw away at the American (and presumably Japanese) dream. Before they eat you out of house and home, it’s time to call in the robots.

Two new robot home inspectors from Japan are gearing up to guard your home and castle. This Yamato House Inspection Robot, a joint project of The Chiba Institute of Technology and Tsukuba University, crawls through your crawl-spaces (where else?) and sub-flooring. It seeks everything from termite invaders to water damage, and relays the evidence back to its human handlers. It’s slated for mass production in April 2008, at an approximate cost of $10,000.

Once your insect enemies have been identified, bring in Asante/NPO’s “Mirubo” to finish them off. Aside from a camera and lighting package, this water-proof, dust-proof robot comes equipped with a fearsome pesticide sprayer and poison-supply hose. A few video clips of Mirubo rescuing the historic Kamakura Shrine from termite invaders are posted on the Robot Watch article.

Translated Links (1,2) to the RobotWatch and RoboNable articles.