As interest in the technology sector grows, many companies are also betting on an ambitious option such as robotics. For example, Amazon is at the forefront of this bet, as the American company is including several robots as an active part of their warehouses. However, this time it was Boston Dynamics, the innovative American company behind the first autonomous robot in a fusion reactor, who made history.
As TechSpot mentions in a recent publication, the test was conducted at the Joint European Torus (JET) of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, one of the largest fusion reactors before its closure. The robot, equipped with location solutions and mission autonomy by the Oxford Robotics Institute, also has an inspection team from UKAEA. This allowed it to perform two daily inspections by using its sensors to map the environment, monitor conditions, navigate obstacles, and collect important data. Fortunately for the researchers, its impact goes beyond that.
An Increase in Safety that Reduces Costs
However, not all sectors may benefit. Although this operation increases safety, as such inspections previously required a human to remotely control the robot, this time it was not necessary as it functioned autonomously. In fact, the use of robots of this type prevents humans from working in dangerous environments, but it also implies that there could be job losses associated with that situation.
Nevertheless, the main goal is to demonstrate that robotic technology is reliable enough to carry out long-term maintenance in fusion plants, an area where human access is limited by radiation, vacuum, and high temperatures. This is the first time that a test has been conducted with a robot that does not require human intervention. And based on the results, the team behind this experiment assures that the findings are crucial.
In 3DJuegos | A robot measuring 1.30 meters, weighing 36 kilos, and having the strength of a car is about to change the industry forever
In 3DJuegos | Windows XP is about to turn 23. What many don’t know is that its end didn’t come in 2014, but much later
