This level of autonomy could improve safety and efficiency across industries
A fully autonomous robot has been used to inspect a fusion energy facility in Oxfordshire for the first time.
This inspection was a result of efforts by research institute United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) at the University of Oxford.
The 35-day trial took place at UKAEA’s Join European Torus (JET) facility, which was one of the largest, most powerful fusion research spaces in the world until its recent scientific operational shutdown.
“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,” said Dr Robert Skilton, the head of research, at UKAEA’s Remote Applications in Challenging Environments division.
Fusion powerplants require regular maintenance, and while robots have been used previously, robotic inspections normally require humans to make decisions and operate properly.
UKAEA’s inspection payload was merged with ORI’s localisation and mission autonomy solutions. This setup was then combined with hardware and collision avoidance technology by engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics.
The canine-inspired Boston Dynamics robot named Spot used ORI’s autonomy platform “AutoInspect” to maintain the JET facility, which is still considered a hazardous environment following two high-powered deuterium-tritium experiments in three years.
The robot performed a variety of tasks, including mapping the whole facility, taking environmental sensor readings and avoiding obstacles and personnel involved in the decommissioning process, collecting data on JET’s environment and status twice a day.
The team was able to use this data to assess that it is possible for an autonomous robot to replace human inspections and will use this data to plan the next steps in JET’s decommissioning and repurposing programme.
“This deployment demonstrates that autonomous robots can enhance safety and cut costs,” said Skilton. “These ‘next-generation’ solutions are becoming ready to be used in other industrial facilities such as nuclear decommissioning, environmental clean-up, and disaster relief.”
In the future, facilities with radiation, vacuum-level pressure and extreme temperatures could be inspected without humans having to put themselves at risk. It would also maximise efficiency, bypassing human error and following its facility-specific programming.
“Projects like this demonstrate the value of autonomous robots – robots that can do things themselves without direct control of humans,” said Professor Nick Hawes, professor of AI & Robotics at the University of Oxford. “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 Embodied Intelligence: From Sensing to Collaboration programme grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
