Published6. February 2024, 5:25 p.m.
Geneva: CERN has a new robot guard dog
Designed to go into tunnels that are difficult to access and congested, this machine monitors the installations.
The robot dog video.
CERN
A four-legged robot successfully completed its first radiation resistance test in CERN’s largest experimental area
Building 937 builds and programs robots capable of meeting the unconventional challenges presented by the Laboratory’s unique facilities. Recently, a new type of robot called CERNquadbot (but more familiarly Robodog), entered the CERN robot park and successfully carried out its first tests in the North zone.
Floor cluttered with wires and pipes
“There are large bundles of wires and pipes on the floor that slide and move, making them impassable for wheeled robots and difficult even for humans. Initial testing of the new robot showed that it was completely stable throughout the inspection,” said Chris McGreavy, robotics engineer in CERN’s Controls, Electronics and Mechatronics (CEM) group.
Until today, the family tree of CERN robots included the modular CERNbot in different sizes and configurations, such as the CERNbotSPS, as well as the Train Inspection Monorail (TIM) and the CRANEbot. They can carry heavy payloads like robotic arms and other tools, but are limited when it comes to entering congested areas and moving across unstructured surfaces and steps.
The team is currently developing advanced control tools and algorithms for the robot dog and its successors for long-term deployment in experimental caverns, such as that of the ALICE detector, which are complex environments with metal staircases and corridors narrow designed for humans or robots with legs.
In collaboration with the Experimental Physics R&D department, the CEM group is developing this four-legged robot which will soon be able to maneuver in almost the entire cave. These robot dogs will be able to regularly monitor the state of the caves and their environmental conditions. They can identify water leaks or fires and other incidents, such as false alarms, in time, all of which can have a significant impact on the operation of machines in caverns and tunnels.
The TIM robot moves on rails
Each robot developed at CERN is carefully designed to address unique challenges and complement each other. For example, rails attached to the ceiling run along the 27-kilometer tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The TIM monorail robot uses these rails to move through the tunnel. While ideal for monitoring and interacting with the tunnels from above, CERN’s new little robot dog can perform activities on the ground, particularly below the beamline, where no robot could move so easily before. It is planned to integrate it with the four monorail robots currently in service in the LHC.
“TIMs are used to monitor large distances of the LHC from above and can travel long distances without recharging. They can deploy the quadbots in local areas to get more information about specific locations that TIM can’t easily access,” says McGreavy.
The robot dog will be able to enter new dimensions of caves, unlike previous wheeled, tracked or monorail robots, expanding the range of environments in which CERN robots can navigate. The Beams department continues to imagine robots for CERN and bring them to fruition.
(Comm/M.P.)