Quadcopter can inspect damaged nuclear reactors without putting workers at risk
Inspecting damaged nuclear plants poses a unique challenge. Radiation inside one of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors was recorded at 73 sieverts, more than 7 times the fatal dose. (Ten sieverts would kill most people exposed to it within weeks.) That’s why researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab and New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering propose that robots undertake the job instead. … They describe an autonomous quadcopter designed to inspect the interior of hazardous sites. … The team’s solution comprises two parts: an autonomous system with state estimation, control, and mapping modules running on custom-designed hardware, and a map-based obstacle avoidance and navigation system.
