Versatile Nuclear Plant Robot

Commercial and Next-generation nuclear power plants need innovative cutting-edge technologies to reduce the cost of building, operating, and maintaining. One such avenue is the introduction of advanced robotic systems as a workforce multiplier to address one of the largest overhead costs for nuclear plants - the personnel required to maintain and operate the plants on a round-the-clock basis. In addition, the introduction of advanced robotic systems has the potential to reduce risks associated with mistakes due to human performance errors that can impact the physical plant, personnel, and operational safety while reducing the plantĺs operational costs. Designing a dual-arm autonomous robotic system adaptable to many tasks performed in nuclear plants during operations and maintenance, along with a robotic system framework for a one-to-many architecture, will lower the cost of power to consumers in the long run. The one-to-many architecture is envisioned to be one operator monitoring 3-5 robotics actively conducting multiple tasks around a plant. Operator intervention would only happen during approval of critical steps and if the robotic system required assistance. Phase I will evaluate commercial off-the-shelf robotic systems and identify the systems that require the least modification to operate in a hazardous radiation environment, then define a set of tasks that the versatile nuclear plant robot could perform in a nuclear application. The full set of system requirements will then be defined, and the testing approach to the robotic system will be selected to position best the robotic system for successful integration into a nuclear application. Phase II will build and test the robotic system and identify opportunities to test the prototype in a nuclear application. This type of robotic platform with a one-to-many architecture could be commercialized in other market segments outside of nuclear as the system at its core is a workforce multiplier.