Revolutionizing Nuclear Fusion: Meet the Pioneering Robot that Successfully Inspected a Facility’s Inner Workings for 35 Days
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) at the University of Oxford announced on September 19, 2024 that they have used the world’s first fully autonomous robot to conduct internal inspections of a fusion energy facility. The trial was conducted over 35 days at UKAEA’s Joint European Taurus Experimental Establishment (JET).
Until now, the periodic maintenance required for fusion power plants has been performed by humans who make judgments and perform operations while robots perform inspections. In contrast, this project aims to prove the reliability of autonomous robot technology and instill trust and confidence in “the use of autonomous robots for long-term inspections at nuclear fusion facilities.”
JET, one of the world’s largest fusion research machines, has been shut down, but remains a dangerous environment after conducting two large-scale deuterium/tritium experiments in the previous three years. . These conditions were ideal for testing the use of ORI’s AutoInspect autonomous platform to control Boston Dynamics’ Spot quadrupedal robot.
This time, inspection work within JET included mapping the entire facility, obtaining environmental sensor values, and avoiding obstacles and workers involved in the shutdown process. To address these, UKAEA’s inspection onboard equipment has been integrated into ORI’s localization and mission autonomy solution. This, combined with Boston Dynamics’ hardware and collision avoidance technology, increases the robot’s capabilities.
The robotic system will collect important data about JET’s environment and overall condition twice a day. This assessed the feasibility of replacing human inspection with a fully autonomous process.
The results demonstrated that autonomous robots can improve safety and reduce costs. These next-generation systems are reaching the stage where they can be used for things such as shutting down nuclear reactors, cleaning the environment, and providing disaster relief.
Related information
Autonomous robot paves the way for future fusion maintenance – GOV.UK