Vega—A small, low cost, ground robot for nuclear decommissioning

This paper presents the Vega robot, which is a small, low cost, potentially disposable ground robot designed for nuclear decommissioning. Vega has been developed specifically to support characterization and inspection operations, such as 2D and 3D mapping, radiation scans and sample retrieval. The d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of field robotics Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 232 - 245
Main Authors: Bird, Benjamin, Nancekievill, Matthew, West, Andrew, Hayman, Jim, Ballard, Chris, Jones, Will, Ross, Shaun, Wild, Toby, Scott, Tom, Lennox, Barry
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2022
Subjects:
3D robotic mapping
Actuators
Alpha rays
Beta rays
Decommissioning
Electronic systems
field robotics
Flexibility
industrial robotics
Inspection
Ionizing radiation
Low cost
Nuclear weapons
Radiation
Radiation detectors
Radiation tolerance
Robot arms
Robots
Spectrometers
vehicle robot
United Kingdom > UK
ISSN:1556-4959, 1556-4967
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper presents the Vega robot, which is a small, low cost, potentially disposable ground robot designed for nuclear decommissioning. Vega has been developed specifically to support characterization and inspection operations, such as 2D and 3D mapping, radiation scans and sample retrieval. The design and construction methodology that was followed to develop the robot is described and its capabilities detailed. Vega was designed to provide flexibility, both in software and hardware, is controlled via tele‐operation, although it can be extended to semi and full autonomy, and can be used in either tethered or untethered configurations. A version of the tethered robot was designed for extreme radiation tolerance, utilizing relay electronics and removing active electronic systems. Vega can be outfitted with a multitude of sensors and actuators, including gamma spectrometers, alpha/beta radiation sensors, LiDARs and robotic arms. To demonstrate its flexibility, a 5 degree‐of‐freedom manipulator has been successfully integrated onto Vega, facilitating deployments where handling is required. To assess the tolerance of Vega to the levels of ionizing radiation that may be found in decommissioning environments, its individual components were irradiated, allowing estimates to be made of the length of time Vega would be able to continue to operate in nuclear environments. Vega has been successfully deployed in an active environment at the Dounreay nuclear site in the UK, deployed in nonactive environments at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, and demonstrated to many other organizations in the UK nuclear industry including Sellafield Ltd, with the goal of moving to active deployments in the future.
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ISSN:1556-4959
1556-4967
DOI:10.1002/rob.22048