Research On The Use Of Robotics In Hazardous Environments At Sandia National Laboratories PDF Download

Hazardous operations which have in the past been completed by technicians are under increased scrutiny due to high costs and low productivity associated with providing protective clothing and environments. As a result, remote systems are needed to accomplish many hazardous materials handling tasks such as the clean-up of waste sites in which the exposure of personnel to radiation, chemical, explosive and other hazardous constituents is unacceptable. Computer models augmented by sensing, and structured, modular computing environments are proving effective in automating many unstructured hazardous tasks. Work at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has focused on applying flexible automation (robotics) to meet the needs of the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE). Dismantling facilities, environmental remediation, and materials handling in changing, hazardous environments lead to many technical challenges. Computer planning, monitoring and operator assistance shorten training cycles, reduce errors, and speed execution of operations. Robotic systems that re-use well-understood generic technologies can be much better characterized than robotic systems developed for a particular application, leading to a more reliable and safer systems. Further safety in robotic operations results from use of environmental sensors and knowledge of the task and environment. Collision detection and avoidance is achieved from such sensor integration and model-based control. This paper discusses selected technologies developed at SNL for use within the USDOE complex that have been or are ready for transfer to government and industrial suppliers. These technologies include sensors, sub-systems, and the design philosophy applied to quickly integrate them into a working robotic system. This paper represents the work of many people at the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center at SNL, to whom the credit belongs.