"In a world-first, a fully autonomous robot has been used to inspect the inside of a fusion energy facility. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI), University of Oxford, have achieved a first-ever autonomous robot deployment in a fusion facility," the agency said in a statement on Thursday.
The four-legged robot was tested at the decommissioned Joint European Torus (JET) facility, which was one of the largest experimental fusion reactors in the world, the statement read, adding that the robot had to map the facility and take sensor readings of its environment, while avoiding obstacles and employees.
The experiment shows that autonomous technologies can be used to maintain fusion power facilities where human access can be limited due to challenging conditions involving radiation, vacuum-level pressure and extreme temperatures, the statement said.