Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Critical Asset Monitoring (RAICAM)

Started

Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr SA Watson
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
University of Manchester

Standard

EPSRC

01 January 2023

05 March 2027

50 months

£265,251

Electrical engineering

North West

UKRI MSCA

Dr SA Watson, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester

Project Contact, Sellafield Ltd
Project Contact, FIS360

This project aims to develop technologies which will enhance the operational capabilities of mobile robots for use in the inspection and maintenance of industrial facilities. A major task in many industrial environments is the retrieval of samples for chemical or biological analysis. Surface swabbing is often conducted manually, but this creates limits on the number of samples that can be taken and their location. There are often many places that can't be reached by people either due to the location (very high, or in confined/restricted access spaces) or environmental hazardous (such as heat or radiation). This project will develop a multi-domain, multi-agent robotic sample retrieval system that will be able to obtain samples across a range of environments. These samples will either be stored for ex-situ analysis in labs or taken to mobile labs for in-situ, real-time analysed. Due to the nature of the operational environments, full autonomy is not desirable, so shared autonomy (human-in-the-loop) will be required. The primary application focus will be nuclear environments, however the technologies will be applicable to many other sectors include petrochemical, offshore and agriculture

18/10/23