I’m guessing you’re a Japanese speaker, so perhaps you can improve upon the translation (both as I understand it, and as is presented at the FuRo site):

「原発対応版Quinceにおいては東京電力の要請を受け、千葉工業大学が独自に開発を行っています。」

“Quince, as modified for operations at nuclear power plants, was developed independently by Chiba Institute of Technology upon request from Tokyo Electric Power Corporation.”

I’ve made a slight adjustment to the phrasing above – your feedback is well appreciated. And thanks for the kind words about the piece!

You are right, the retrofitting of Quince to sustain radiations as well as the final configuration (sensors and control algorithms) was done under supervision/approval of TEPCO.

I just thought that “[QUINCE] … was developed independently upon request from TEPCO.” was very misleading.

Beside this little thing, the article is very well done, very informative and very well documented!

As a government organization, NEDO is a approximate analogue for DARPA in the U.S., i.e., they don’t actually make anything; they distribute the cash, corral the talent, and demand results – in the case of all versions of Quince, it was the FURO lab at the Chiba Institute of Technology who did the making.

And yes, as mentioned, the battle tested iRobot recon robots had lots and lots of real-world experience. PackBot had already been in the field for 10 tens year at that point – a fact that added to the particular sting of Japan’s lack of go-to robots in the immediate aftermath. Though Quince had been in development for several years, it was months after the initial disaster before a properly shielded model could be deployed.

Thanks again for the feedback! In such a brief and broad article it’s not always possible to dive into the minutiae of each case, but luckily we have the comments section for that!