CASE STUDY: HEXAPOD
Decommissioning and maintenance
work in the nuclear industry requires
inspection, dismantling, and sorting of
vast quantities of radioactive equipment
and materials.
RAIN researchers are developing a
hexapod and a snake robot that have
tooling and sensing capabilities to
perform in-situ repairs and maintenance
inside nuclear facilities.
The hexapod has high mobility,
machining capability and versatility
through the use of different leg layouts,
a specialised stiffness mechanism and
the ability to deploy different tools.
The snake-like robot has a slender and
flexible construction so that it can be
used for mapping inside of gloveboxes.
The RAIN Hub is developing inactive but
realistic model gloveboxes for the next
stages of testing and demonstration.
TIMELINE
Develop
Bring technology to an appropriate level.
Deploy
From lab tests to active site trials and
prepare for commercialisation.
MARCH 2021
1st phase of the
RAIN Hub completed
FROM SPRING 2019
Annual working group workshops and whole Hub demonstrations.
Regular RAIN meets and smaller demonstrations throughout.
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