Robotic Exploration of an Unknown Nuclear Environment Using Radiation Informed Autonomous Navigation
Robotic Exploration of an Unknown Nuclear Environment Using Radiation Informed Autonomous Navigation
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DOI：
10.3390/robotics10020078
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发表时间：
2021-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Lennox, Barry
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Groves, Keir;Hernandez, Emili;Lennox, Barry
本文描述了一种新型自主地面车辆，旨在探索包含电离辐射源的未知环境，例如可能在核灾难现场或遗留核设施中发现的环境。在探索环境时，机器人必须避开辐射热点以最大限度地减少故障，这一点很重要。故障机器人带来了一个真正的问题：它们不仅会导致任务失败，还会阻塞未来任务的访问路线。到目前为止，此类机器人尚不具备自主伽马辐射规避能力。新的软件算法可以将辐射测量结果转换为可以集成到机器人导航系统中的格式，以便机器人可以在任务期间主动避免接收高辐射剂量。无人驾驶地面车辆配备了伽马辐射探测器和自主导航套件，其中包括新的辐射规避软件。整个系统在包含两个辐射源的复杂半结构化环境中进行了实验评估。在实验中，机器人在用户定义的路径点之间导航时，成功识别了两个源并避开了被发现具有高辐射水平的区域。这一最先进技术的进步有可能为核工业带来真正的好处，既增加了任务成功的机会，又减少了对人类操作人员在危险辐射环境中执行任务的依赖。
This paper describes a novel autonomous ground vehicle that is designed for exploring unknown environments which contain sources of ionising radiation, such as might be found in a nuclear disaster site or a legacy nuclear facility. While exploring the environment, it is important that the robot avoids radiation hot spots to minimise breakdowns. Broken down robots present a real problem: they not only cause the mission to fail but they can block access routes for future missions. Until now, such robots have had no autonomous gamma radiation avoidance capabilities. New software algorithms are presented that allow radiation measurements to be converted into a format in which they can be integrated into the robot's navigation system so that it can actively avoid receiving a high radiation dose during a mission. An unmanned ground vehicle was fitted with a gamma radiation detector and an autonomous navigation package that included the new radiation avoidance software. The full system was evaluated experimentally in a complex semi-structured environment that contained two radiation sources. In the experiment, the robot successfully identified both sources and avoided areas that were found to have high levels of radiation while navigating between user defined waypoints. This advancement in the state-of-the-art has the potential to deliver real benefit to the nuclear industry, in terms of both increased chance of mission success and reduction of the reliance on human operatives to perform tasks in dangerous radiation environments.