Duct entry robots for the characterisation of Nuclear facilities

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My project is the design of a ground-based robot to characterise nuclear facilities that are only accessible through 125mm diameter access ports. The task requires for a robot to enter or be entered into a nuclear facility through an access port, before capturing sensory data inside and eventually being removed from the facility. It is important that contamination of the robot is kept to a minimum and that its use does not lead to the spread of radioactive material. For this reason, many obvious solutions such as drones and tracked vehicles have been advised against. A folding 'morphing wheg' robot is currently in development and will be further developed before being evaluated against other designs. The robot must be controlled by an operator outside of the facility who will have no direct line of sight of the robot, for this reason teleoperation with a degree of automation will be used to carry out the characterisation. While the project aims to research and implement future technologies, the Nuclear decommissioning industry is currently quite conservative in its approach to technology, consequently control systems and especially automation will need to be developed carefully and with the input of Sellafield to ensure robust processes and regulatory compliance.Over the course of the 3 years, the project will encompass the Requirements and Benchmarking analysis, Prototyping and Mechanical Design, Teleoperation, Automation, Design Evaluation and User studies.