Design and development of a wheged nuclear robot
Title: Design and development of a wheged nuclear robot
Authors: Dominic Murphy (University of the West of England); Manuel Giuliani (University of the West of England);
Year: 2022
Citation: Murphy, D., Giuliani, M., (2022). Design and development of a wheged nuclear robot. UKRAS22 Conference “Robotics for Unconstrained Environments” Proceedings, 40-41. doi: 10.31256/Th2Vi1K
Abstract:
Abstract—This paper explores the design and development of a foldable robot to survey and characterize nuclear facilities accessible only via 125mm diameter entry ducts. The enclosed legacy facilities at the Sellafield nuclear site have limited access. The condition, radioactive characteristics and accessibility of the enclosed environments is unknown and for decommissioning to take place, these environments must be mapped and characterised. For a robot to carry out this task, one of the key requirements is the ability of the robot to traverse rough
terrain and obstacles that could be found inside the facility. To accommodate this while fitting through the entry duct, the chosen design utilizes morphing wheel-leg systems for locomotion. These are shape-changing wheels that can open out into a set of legs that rotate around an axle, allowing greater traction, diameter, and object traversal ability than wheels alone. The design and morphology of a morphing wheel-leg robot for nuclear characterisation, as well as the manufacture of a prototype is discussed in this paper.