When it comes to inspection or maintenance, complex industry such as nuclear still relies a lot on human presence. That said, in the past few years, to plan for the upcoming workforce shortage as well as offering new options to safely assess constrained environments, robotic solutions have more and more been considered.

Afterall, there is already more than 3 million industrial robots in operation in manufacturing and smart warehousing across the world. Granted, these environments are structured and tasks mostly repetitive, but a few solutions do exist to go where, on industrial estates, humans cannot safely operate. Some can even deal with irregular environments, like rough terrain or stairs, maybe even open doors or help against the dark side…

We’ve all heard about quadrupedal robots, their capability for autonomous behaviour, their advanced mobility and perception. This is not something new anymore, but are those solutions truly fit-for-purpose when it comes to operate in some of the challenging environments you would want them to explore on a nuclear site?

Yes, there are indeed a batch of great solutions out there to access multisensory insights without even thinking about how to get up and down stairs. With charging docks, they could cover large areas, even for      24/7 inspection roles (or: shifts). Explore more, get more data, autonomously, 24/7. Neat!

That being said, the candidate for that nuclear job would need to be a seriously well-thought contender. Easy to maintain, suited to operate in harsh conditions, dustproof and waterproof out-of-the-box, engineered as a true industrial robot and made to last. Well, let us introduce you to the perfect companion.