Publications Details
Automating the operation of robots in hazardous environments
Hazardous operations which in the past have been completed by technicians are under increased scrutiny due to high costs and low productivity associated with providing protective clothing and environments. As a result, remote systems are needed to accomplish many hazardous materials handling tasks such as the clean up of waste sites in which the exposure of personnel to radiation, chemical, explosive, and other hazardous constituents is unacceptable. Traditional remote operations have proven to have very low productivity when compared with unencumbered humans. Computer models augmented by sensing and structured, modular computing environments are proving to be effective in automating many unstructured hazardous tasks.