The 35-day trial took place in the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)’s Joint European Torus (JET) facility, one of the largest and most powerful fusion research facilities until its recent scientific operational shutdown. The work was carried out in collaboration with Oxford Robotics Institute.
In a statement, Dr Robert Skilton, head of research, at UKAEA’s Remote Applications in Challenging Environments division, said: “The project aimed to validate the reliability of autonomous robotic technology and instil trust and confidence in their use for safe and efficient inspections in fusion facilities over extended periods.”
Dr Skilton continued: “This deployment demonstrates that autonomous robots can enhance safety and cut costs. These ‘next generation’ solutions are becoming ready to be used in other industrial facilities such as nuclear decommissioning, environmental clean-up, and disaster relief.”
JET provided an opportunity to test ORI’s autonomy platform AutoInspect controlling a Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped robot in an environment still hazardous after two high-powered deuterium-tritium experiments in the space of three years.
The inspection tasks within JET involved mapping the entire facility, taking sensor readings of its environment, and avoiding obstacles and personnel involved in the decommissioning process.
To address these challenges, UKAEA’s inspection payload was integrated with ORI’s localisation and mission autonomy solutions. This setup was combined with Boston Dynamics’ hardware and collision avoidance technology to enhance the robot’s capabilities.
This integrated robotic system collected essential data on JET’s environment and overall status twice a day.
Nick Hawes, Professor of AI & Robotics and director of ORI, said: “Projects like this demonstrate the value of autonomous robots. They also ground our science in real use cases and provide requirements and constraints that drive us to invent new AI and robotics algorithms.”
ORI’s work in this project was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Embodied Intelligence: From Sensing to Collaboration programme grant which aims to create autonomous systems that enhance human capability and potential.
The results will assist planning for the next stages of the JET decommissioning and repurposing (JDR) programme.
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