1. Innovation
Developing new tools for the nuclear industry
LaserSnake 2
Rob Buckingham
28 January 2014
Page 1 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

2. LaserSnake2 overview
• £7.7m national program
• Ambition: additional tools for reliable, routine decommissioning
• Ex-situ size reduction of low active components using laser cutting
at Windscale Lab on Sellafield site
• Trace active deployment of LaserSnake for in-situ decommissioning
on Sellafield site
• Working towards high active decommissioning
• Submerged snake-arm demonstration
• Mobile vehicle demonstration
Page 2 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

3. In-situ decommissioning
Page 3 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

4. Snake-arm robots
Page 4 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

5. Laser cutting
Page 5 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

6. UNDERWATER CUTTING
Page 6 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

7. Underwater cutting
Page 7 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

8. LASERSNAKE
Page 8 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

9. LaserSnake
Page 9 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

10. TUNNEL BORING MACHINES
Page 10 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

11. Tunnel boring machines
Page 11 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

12. Innovating
• It‟s hard!
• „Why change?‟
– Doing nothing is easier than doing something!!
• “Necessity is the mother of invention”
– User pull and technology push
– Politicians, regulators, industry, academia – aligning behind the
industrial strategy
Page 12 of not too many ©2014 OC Robotics®

13. Robotics & Autonomous Systems
The embodied internet

14. Background
Analysis
•
•
•
Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) is one of the Eight Great
Technologies.
RAS is a General Purpose Technology which impacts many UK
sectors, including those with industry sector strategies:
nuclear, aerospace, manufacturing and societal issues such as the aging
population.
The embodied internet
– Interactive, interconnected, data-rich, smart tools that do work:
• Where people should not work, and,
• Working alongside people in human spaces and places
•
Recent estimates for global market size
– EU Commission - €15.5 billion pa
– UKTI - US$25 billion pa
– McKinsey - by 2025 economic impact US$1.9 and $6.4 trillion

15. RAS-Strategy
Delivering innovation
•
•
Building and industry
Creating an innovation conveyor belt
•
•
•
•
RAS-coordination
– RAS-fellows; RAS-entrepreneurs
RAS-challenges
RAS-assets
RAS-clusters
•
•
Harsh environments – it‟s a hot spot
NNL, CCFE, SL, EDF, Chevron, BP…

16. Strategy for Growth
RAS Assets
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Building the RAS-UK balance sheet
Tangible and intangible assets
The identification, creation and use of RAS assets
Using established UK infrastructure, e.g. an airport, a section of motorway, a
ward of a hospital, a nuclear facility, a North Sea installation, a farm…
First-of-kind UK-based real locations/facilities to accelerate technical maturity
and explore societal acceptance including regulatory, certification and legal
issues
In nuclear, we support Sellafield‟s Active Demonstrator Program
NNL and CCFE as locations to nucleate RAS-clusters, linking with world class
universities and industry of all sizes

17. Robotics & Autonomous Systems
The embodied internet