"RadPiper is a robot developed by the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute for the Department of Energy," the university wrote. "The treaded robot moves within the pipes of uranium-enrichment facilities to determine areas where radiation levels may pose a hazard."
Now a new set of "hands" is being brought in to speed up the work. Well, not hands exactly, but a radiation sensor and a pair of flexible tracks. A small pipe-crawling robot named RadPiper will be unleashed in 15 of the 75 miles of pipes that were once used to make enriched uranium
According to a press release from Carnegie Mellon, each one-foot segment of pipe needs to have radiation measurements taken to rule out any potentially hazardous amounts of uranium-235 still left over in the pipes. If RadPiper discovers a hazardous section of pipe, it has to be removed and decontaminated. Clean sections of piping can remain in place and will be demolished with the rest of the building.
Robot code:
Functions:
crawl (speed, distance) // moves forward for distance at speed, if speed is negative, move backwards
spinMeter(degrees) // rotates the radiation meter a number of degrees
getRadiation() // returns the amount of radiation sensed
isBlocked() // if the path ahead is blocked
wait(seconds) // stay in place for a specified number of seconds
What problems might the robot encounter? What kind of communication should it have?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180320084315.htm