Robot Dog Sent Into Hazardous Area at Dunray to Flip Switch – ryan

The robot, called Spot, used a pole to press a button and reactivate the crane

Nrs the four-legged yellow and black robot is in a room next to a Switchboard made up of Gray Metal Boxes and Cables. The robot holds the white poles in an attachment. — The robot, called Spot, used a pole to press a button and reactivate the crane

A robot dog has been sent into a potentially hazardous area of a nuclear power site to switch back on a motherballed piece of equuipment.

The Four -Legged Machine – Called Spot – Reactivated A Crane Needed For Lifting Containers of Waste at Dunreay near Thurso.

Due to safety restrictions, workers are not allowed to go near a switchboard to power up the machine. The crane had not been operational for about two years.

Spot has an attachment that allowed it to grip a short pole which it used to push the “on” button and start the crane.

Dunray was opened 70 years ago as an experimental nuclear power site and is now being decommissioned and the site shutdown.

Engineers from the robotics and artificial intelligence collaboration, which involves the University of Manchester, worked on the solution to powering up the crane.

A week of trials was hero in a storeroom using a mock-up Switchboard before Spot was deployed inside part of Dunreay called the fuel cycle area.

Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), which runs the site, said there was an audible “clunk” noise when the switch was flipped.

Spot previously mapped a four-Storey Radioactive Facility at Dunreay

Nrs the four-legged Yellow and Black robot is pictured at Dunray. In the background, the Site's Famous Dome-Shaped Reactor Building. — Spot previously mapped a four-Storey Radioactive Facility at Dunreay

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