In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima reactor disaster, Cambridge, Mass.-based Energid Technologies Corporation has developed a next-generation robot prototype for heat exchanger inspection in nuclear power plants.

The robot was created for use in an inspection system by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Ltd. MHI came to Energid, a leader in the creation of advanced robotic systems, for robotic vehicle design, prototype development, and software integration.

Advanced control and machine vision algorithms developed by Energid were used on the prototype robot.

The Energid prototype is an important component of the full system under development at MHI. MHI is planning to apply all or part of the new technologies that Energid developed into their next generation of heat exchange generator robots.

Extensive movement verification tests have been performed using the prototype robot in Energid’s lab in Burlington, Massachusetts. The prototype hardware and control algorithms passed these stringent tests, pointing the way forward in MHI’s quest to radically improve robotic performance.

SOURCE: Energid Technologies Corporation