In a world-first, a fully autonomous robot has been used to
inspect the inside of a fusion energy facility.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Oxford
Robotics Institute (ORI), University of Oxford, have achieved a
first-ever autonomous robot deployment in a fusion facility.
The 35-day trial took place in UKAEA's Joint European Torus (JET)
facility, which until its recent scientific operational shutdown,
was one of the largest and most powerful fusion research machines
in the world.
In a step towards the commercial viability of fusion energy, a
world-leading robotics alliance has successfully demonstrated
that part of a fusion facility's maintenance can be carried out
by an autonomous robot, thus making such work safer for humans
and more cost efficient for its operator.
Fusion powerplants will need regular maintenance. Traditionally,
robotic inspections required humans to make decisions and to
operate.
“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, Head of Research, at
UKAEA's Remote Applications in Challenging Environments division.
Such advancements pave the way for autonomous maintenance and
decommissioning in future fusion facilities where human access
may be limited owing to challenging conditions posed by
radiation, vacuum-level pressure and extreme temperatures.
JET provided the ideal 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.
“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,” Dr Skilton continued.
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, developed through a collaboration between Professors
Hawes' and Fallon's teams. 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. This allowed
the team to assess the feasibility of replacing human inspections
with fully autonomous processes.
Prof. Nick Hawes, Professor of AI & Robotics, University of
Oxford, said of ORI's aims in the project, “Projects like this
demonstrate the value of autonomous robots – robots that can do
things themselves without direct control of humans. 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.
