On October 22, Chornobyl NPP was visited by engineers of the University of Bristol. Their task was to test the remotely controlled robots under the Exclusion Zone conditions, and one of such robots was a world famous Spot, a robot-dog, developed by the Boston Dynamics.
Unique features of Spot are that it can move in complex terrain (such as stones or debris), get over obstacles, walk up sloping surfaces and stairs, as well as get on its feet after turning over onto its back. Availability on its “back” of a special platform for installing the equipment potentially allows using the robot for remote radiation survey.
The visit to the ChNPP is commented by David Megson-Smith, a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the University of Bristol involved in the development of novel and new sensors for deployment of robotic platforms, which can be used in the nuclear industry:
“We came to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone to use the robotic platforms for mapping the distribution of radiation, test our robotic platforms and build new networks of people. We’ve worked a lot with the nuclear organizations in the United Kingdom but we haven’t ever worked in the environment as difficult as here at the ChNPP.
To work here within the nuclear power plant is an exciting opportunity for us. And we have an ability to demonstrate to your personnel what we can do and how we might be of help. Hopefully, everything we have seen here will make us better understand your problems. And we can develop our technology to adjust it exactly to the problems that your engineers need to address on a daily basis”.
Dr. Peter Martin, a coordinator of the visit of the engineers of the University of Bristol to ChNPP, assured that the University is interested in further cooperation and it plans re-visiting the Chornobyl NPP in 2021 for testing other dosimetry technologies and presenting to the ChNPP the technologies that may be used during the radioactive waste management and dismantling activities.
