Remote Eyes: Robotic Inspection of Nuclear Facilities

PI: Fallon, Maurice

Department: Engineering Science

This proposal is for a demonstrator project which will deploy our RemoteEyes robot inspection system in a suitable industrial facility for the medium term trial (between a week and a month). We will work with our partners (RACE and Magnox) to develop secure communications (and UI) to allow a human to remotely oversee the robot operating on sensitive site; to prototype sensing capabilities (such as visual and 3D change detection algorithms and automated rerouting) needed to fulfil inspection use-cases and to understand how to integrate with day-to-day activities on the site. This will build up the credibility of our broader system/solution.

The completed system will be tested with industrial collaborators. To achieve this we will work with Magnox Ltd (a UK Government-owned company which manages legacy nuclear facilites) to define a multi-week end-of-project trial at their site at Bradwell Nuclear Power Plant in Essex. We will then create a stronger and more robust hardware device specifically for the project. The research working on the project will develop 3D change detection (a key feature requested by end-users). In parallel a platform engineer at ORI will develop the capabilities needed for permanent deployment: automated scheduling, mission summarisation, and a remote supervision user interface.

The final trial will target completely remote deployment and supervision of the robot's missions by a human operator moving the work to the point where ‘commercial pull’ is more likely.