Researchers Develop New Approach to Nuclear Waste Handling
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, more than 85,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and 90 million gallons of waste from government weapons programs have accumulated in the country to date.
This figure is growing rapidly. Another 2,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel are added each year. Nuclear waste disposal and processing is a dangerous task that requires precision and care. Researchers from the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics, led by the Extreme Robotics Lab at the University of Birmingham in the UK, are finding ways to help people and robots work together to get the job done.
The researchers developed a system using a standard industrial robot that uses a parallel-jaw gripper to handle objects, and Ensenso N35 3D cameras to observe the surrounding environment. The team's system allows people to make more complex decisions that artificial intelligence is not capable of, while the robot determines how best to carry out the tasks. The team uses three types of shared control.
The first is semi-autonomy, where a human makes high-level decisions and the robot plans and executes them. The second is variable autonomy, where a human can choose to switch between autonomous movements and direct movements controlled by a joystick. The third is shared control, where a human remotely controls certain aspects of the task, such as moving the robot's arm toward an object, while the AI decides how to orient the gripper to best grasp that object.
The robot is equipped with an Ensenso 3D camera, which gives it spatial vision similar to human sight. Ensenso cameras work by having two cameras view objects from slightly different positions. They capture images that are similar in content but show the objects in different positions.
Ensenso software combines these two images to create a point cloud model of the object. This way of seeing the world helps the robot move more precisely.
“The point cloud is used by our system to automatically generate several stable grasp positions. Because the point clouds captured by the 3D camera have high resolution and density, the grasp position for each object can be determined with high accuracy. Based on this, our "hypothesis ranking algorithm" determines the next object to pick up, based on the robot's current position”
Researchers in the lab are currently developing an extension of the system that will be compatible with a multi-fingered hand instead of a jaw gripper. They are also working on fully autonomous grasping methods in which the robot is controlled by AI.
A consortium of eight universities led by the University of Birmingham is developing advanced technologies to address the nuclear waste problem. Its mission is to clean up radioactive materials in the UK, but the benefits of the technologies being developed for people go far beyond nuclear safety.
"The UK holds 4.9 million tonnes of nuclear waste. With today's technologies, making it safe could take up to 120 years and up to £200 billion. We need new ways to dispose of legacy waste, solutions that are faster, safer and cheaper than what we have now. Finding them is what we do at the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR)," the researchers said.
By bringing together leading experts in robotics, artificial intelligence, sensors, radiation and fault-tolerant embedded systems, the scientists aim to address Europe's largest and most complex environmental challenge in a timely manner.
The UK has invested £42 million in the NCNR. The scientists' main goal is to reduce nuclear waste, ease the burden on taxpayers and create a safer world for future generations. These funds were provided by research institutions, industry, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and private investors.
The NCNR is a collaborative project involving international experts from eight UK universities and more than 30 partners from the nuclear industry.
Nuclear waste must be handled safely. Robots are being developed to autonomously perform complex tasks (perception, grasping, cutting and manipulating waste). After sorting, radioactive material can be safely stored or disposed of appropriately using remotely controlled robots.
Radiation is used in many different industries, including as fuel for nuclear power plants and in the production of nuclear weapons for national defense. This use produces nuclear waste that must be disposed of in a safe and effective manner.
There are three main types of nuclear waste: high-level, transuranic and low-level. Each must be disposed of according to the risk it poses to human health and the environment. For example, high-level nuclear waste remains highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years and must be buried in a way that allows it to be reliably isolated for a long period of time.
