Energid power robot depoloyed in China for nuclear inspections

Energid Technologies announced Wednesday that an Articulated Inspection Arm (AIA) powered by its software has been deployed to Hefei, China for testing.

The AIA was developed by the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research of the French Atomic Agency and Alternative Energies Commission and the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The robot is designed to be able to manage the tokamak plasma container, which is able to contain plasma material using magnetic fields.

Energid's Actin software allows intuitive operation of the robot allowing them to control it and to avoid collisions and other accidents.

"Using Actin's control system and feature-rich 3D environment made the deployment of the robot much easier for the users," Piyoosh Mukhija, lead project engineer for the AIA system at Energid, said. "It enables the operators to quickly switch between different, powerful control modes that allow a mix of interactive and automated movements."

The container is able to manage material that has such an extreme temperature that no physical material would be able to manage it safely. Testing of both the robot and the software system powering it in Hefei will return to France once testing is completed.

Energid collaborated with AREVA and OPEN CASCADE in the development of this software.