An inspection robot has been used to inspect a potentially hazardous area at Scotland’s largest nuclear demolition project.
The University of Manchester has partnered with the University of Nottingham to develop the robots, which range from 4mm to 40mm in diameter and can be 3m to 7m in length, to inspect areas which might be inaccessible to humans.
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Fitted with a camera, lights, and finger dosimeters, which measure the dose uptake of external ionising radiation, the robot was trialled in one of Dounreay’s redundant laboratories, to inspect the area under a turntable that dominates the cell.
The project was initially funded by the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear centre, and was developed in response to a challenge by Game Changers, a nuclear innovation programme which finds solutions for complex nuclear industry challenges.
ICE9 Robotics, which specialises in customising robots for use in hazardous areas, was also involved in the project and supported the team from Nottingham University during the deployments at Dounreay.
Project manager for Nuclear Restoration Services at Dounreay, Jason Simpson, said: “Surveys of the area under the turntable will be very useful to us in planning the decommissioning strategy of the laboratory.”
Dr Xin Dong, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham and who has been developing ‘snake’ robots for 14 years, compared the robot to a puppet: “Our puppet is a really long snake-like robot.
“You have a lot of joins, you have cables and you pull those cables to change the orientation, [and] instead of hands, we can use motors and computers to control robots.”
Innovations and achievements in nuclear robotics will be highlighted and celebrated at the second annual Robotics & Automation Awards on 06 November 2024 at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London. Visit www.roboticsandautomationawards.co.uk to learn more about this unmissable industry event – and to book your table!
