Spot the dog? No, we couldn't either because Spot is a robot employed by United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
- Reference: 1631270592
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/10/spot_sellafield_boston_dynamics/
- Source link:
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has held a three-day trial of Boston Dynamics' four-legged Spot at the decommissioned Calder Hall nuclear plant in Sellafield, northwest England.
In the hope these devices may become something more useful than social media sensations, UKAEA worked with Sellafield Ltd, which runs the site, to see if the mechanical quadrupeds could carry out routine tasks like inspections, mapping, data capture and characterisation in high-risk radioactive environments where humans should take precautions.
[2]
"The four-legged robot is able to perform autonomous missions and can be controlled remotely via an operator, which significantly improves safety by allowing the robot to enter hazardous, contaminated areas in lieu of a person," the publicity material says.
[3]
[4]
The demonstration is "all about understanding Spot's capabilities and limitations in order to enable us to make decisions for the future uses at Sellafield," said Sellafield Ltd remediation capability development manager Chris Hope in [5]an accompanying video .
Edwin Matthews, head of technical and new capability remediation at Sellafield Ltd, said: "For remediation at Sellafield, there are the decommission elements and there are the waste management elements. A platform like Spot would be really beneficial to us in terms of being able to get to places that either humans can't go in, or they can't spend the same amount of time in."
[6]
The video shows Spot lift itself up to "view" an archaic dial on a piece of ageing nuclear machinery.
Createc worked with the team to integrate sensors and payloads on the Spot platform to allow the machine to perform "real-world tasks on site," said Will Newsom, head of nuclear engineering at Createc, a small business based in Cumbria.
The video or publicity material did not detail what real-world tasks, if any, were completed or attempted during the trial.
[7]
The basic Spot hardware was [8]reported to cost around $75,000 per dog, sorry, unit. It is unclear who funded the trial or how much the UK authorities paid for the units.
Sellafield Ltd, Boston Dynamics and UKAEA have been contacted for comment.
Sellafield has in fact been home to the UK nuclear industry since 1948 as facilities there supplied plutonium for nuclear weapons.
The video shows Spot climbing stairs, going into dark halls and traversing scattered debris in Calder Hall power station, which began life in 1954, under the ownership of Windscale Works before being passed to the UKAEA.
It housed four Magnox reactors capable of generating 60MW of electricity each, reduced to 50MW in 1973. The power station closed in 2003, with one of the reactors in operation for 47 years.
De-fuelling and removal of most buildings at Calder Hall is expected to take until 2032, followed by a care and maintenance phase from 2033 to 2104, 150 years after it was built. ®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF4DML7FIWk
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YTuBPPgH3Dh8lEydG90loQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YTuBPPgH3Dh8lEydG90loQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YTuBPPgH3Dh8lEydG90loQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://youtu.be/hmDQTYNlG4c
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YTuBPPgH3Dh8lEydG90loQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YTuBPPgH3Dh8lEydG90loQAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/22/75000-boston-dynamics-robot-dog-for-sale-take-a-look.html
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
5 legs worse
8 legs nightmare
3 legs, oh hello.
3 legs
Hah! the chances of seeing anything which naturally has only three legs are a million to one against.
RotM
I don't get tired of watching them. They are astonishing.
Re: RotM
How long before the radiation mutates the electronics and supercharges the batteries to produce a robotic canine super villain?
Re: RotM
Like the 'Gooney Bird' Concorde from Nemesis the Warlock?
Re: RotM
Wow, that goes back a bit. I was only talking about Nemesis with my younger brother yesterday, together with the ABC Warriors, Robusters, and switching comics, my Warrior collection.
Must dig out the collected stores again.
Re: RotM
That should have been "collected stories". Why do you only notice this after the 10 minute edit window closes!
Re: RotM
The Boston Dynamics videos include several sequnces where ther demonstrate the recovery capability of robots by trying to push them over.
When a two-legged, anthropoid machine staggers but stays standing, my reaction is "That's impressive engineering". When it's the four-legged version, I can't help thinking "Don't be cruel to the doggy".
Re: RotM
They are pretty cool. Some apps seem to get people riled. But in general I think they have potential.
Hopefully it will last longer than the robots used at Chernobyl. I suppose that fido won't be exposed to such extreme levels of radiation.
Yes, that's the problem: the electronics are at least susceptible to radiation as meatware.
I'm not one to dismiss the effects of ionising radiation on microelectronics, but chips are less susceptible than meatbags, even if they're modern chips with ridiculously tiny feature sizes that haven't been radiation hardened. And they're more easily replaceable when burnt out. (Unless they are in orbit.)
And it sounds like they're only being used in situations a human could enter. The high radiation environments are where you use the really expensive clockwork models.
At yd...
It's not the radiation that kills the poor bots, it's the exposure to whatever that stuff is lurking in the remains of the cafeteria. Now *that* stuff is lethal! =-)p
History repeating itself?
I hadn't realised that the UK Atomic Energy Authority had anything at all to do with atomic energy any more. Its website says "UKAEA researches fusion energy and related technologies". But I am sure the Chinese, French and American reactor manufacturers are delighted with the fruits of the billions that the British previously spent on researching nuclear fission.
Since British Governments are congenitally clueless about how to commercially exploit any research, and quite happy to see any British company that does manage that sold off abroad, perhaps yet again the UK is subsidising the research to enable foreign corporations to turn a profit selling us its end products in a few years time.
The problem with nuclear summed up in one throwaway phrase .....
"...... a care and maintenance phase from 2033 to 2104"
By which time the benefactors of the energy produced will be long deceased and the cost of disposal firmly on the shoulders of those who saw no benefit.
Obvious application
And here is the most obvious application for robots - doing jobs that are inherently too dangerous for humans to do without cumbersome safety equipment.
Until of course they figure out it is easier to get rid of the humans than it is to do their dirty work.
Four legs good, two legs bad!