I recently posted an article about robotic research at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. They are developing robots that can carry out routine inspection of big industrial plants such as oil refineries and nuclear power plants. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011 has stimulated other companies to develop robots specifically designed to be able to survive intense radiation in nuclear power plants as they clean up debris from accidents or during decommissioning. Most of the robots are simply teleoperated by humans from a safe remote location. However, some researchers are working on robots that are able to carry out some tasks autonomously.
Engineers at Lancaster University in the U.K. are working on computer systems for control of robots handling hazardous nuclear materials. The software allows the robots to handle some routine tasks without needing guidance from a human in a remote location. The engineers are using novel imaging software and a Microsoft Kinect camera added to a robot with two manipulating arms. The new software makes it simpler to recognize, grasp and cut objects such as metal pipes which are often found in nuclear reactors that are being decommissioned. The engineers say that the new software may be able to speed up decommissioning while the robot’s activities are monitored by a human via teleoperation.
James Taylor is a professor of control engineering at Lancaster University’s Department of Engineering. He said, “The standard within nuclear decommissioning is for direct human-controlled remote tele-operation of robots, which is extremely difficult for the operators particularly given the complexity of nuclear decommissioning tasks. Fully autonomous solutions are unlikely to be deemed safe in the near future and so we have explored creating a semi-autonomous solution that sits between the two.”
“By making use of a single camera mounted on the robot our system focusses on a common task in these harsh environments - the selecting and cutting of pipes. Our system enables an operator to instruct the robot manipulator to perform a pipe grasp and cut action with just four mouse clicks. Tests show that operators using this system successfully outperform operators using the current joystick-based standard. It keeps the user in control of the overall robot but significantly reduces user workload and operation time.”
A few operators have tested the new software-hardware combination in laboratory conditions. The researchers know that a great deal more testing will be required. It will also be necessary to addition features to the robots such as radiation shielding before the robots can be tested in an actual radioactive environment.
The research at Lancaster has been published in an article in the Robotics journal. The project was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR). The purpose of the NCNR is to develop advanced robotics and artificial intelligence technology for application in the nuclear industry. A primary focus of the work at the center is to develop technology which will help with nuclear waste management. The NCNR was founded by eight universities including Lancaster University.