Energid Technologies Corp. of Cambridge, Massachusetts has developed a prototype for a robot that will inspect nuclear power plants. The next generation robot was developed as part of an agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd of Japan. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Mitsubishi is one of the world's leading heavy machinery manufacturers.
The job of the robot will be to inspect a nuclear plant’s heat exchanger and steam tubing systems at a faster and more reliable rate than existing robots can perform today. The job is obviously dangerous for human beings due to the potential radiation threat, highlighted by the recent problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Neil Tardella said that the milestone, the successful completion of hardware-integration testing coming from our co-operation, represents substantial risk reduction. He said that you needed to minimize human interaction, and get the job done as fast as possible as every moment a power plant is offline is money lost. He added that they were all eager to move forward.
Chief Operating Officer for Energid Technologies, Neil Tardella said that the robots could also be used in disaster situations such as the March earthquake cum tsunami that damaged the nuclear power plants in Japan. Energid Technologies also develops robotic systems and products for the energy, agriculture, transportation, defense, and medical industries.