Operation of Underwater Rescue Robot Anchor Diver III During the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

Anchor Diver III is the first robot from Japan which was applied after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Anchor Diver III has been developed since 2009 to assist the underwater search and rescue activities of the Tokyo Fire Department. Tokyo Fire Department owns its own ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) for underwater rescue activities. However, search and rescue tasks for drowned persons on the bottom of rivers or coastal seabeds by robot is quite demanding. Since the water current is sometimes fast, the ROV tends to drift and the cable of the ROV tends to become tangled with debris at the bottom. Thus it has been reported that in most cases scuba divers are performing search and rescue tasks with no ROV support. Anchor Diver III can solve the problems of conventional ROVs by its unique mechanical design. This paper gives an overview of Anchor Diver III and describes the search and rescue activities during 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami from 19 th to 21 st of April, 2011.