A report on a project to inspect a contaminated nuclear power station, from the Guardian. Excerpt:

The university has built a "hexacopter", which has six separate rotary engines. It is also equipped with lidar (light detection and ranging), remote-sensing technology that uses lasers to create detailed three-dimensional images which can be viewed from any angle.

"The hexacopter can scan the interior surface. It is can be autonomous and it will fly for about 20 minutes," said Seager.

"The craft was designed for the mapping of the interiors of buildings. Its USP is mapping inside buildings that may have been contaminated, or are difficult to access by other means. The model has potential military spin-offs. In Afghanistan, you could send it into an building and do a survey so you'd know who and what was inside."

Who goes in and charges the batteries?

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Comment by Martin on August 6, 2012 at 8:15am

There's a reason why the Russians used men instead of robots to remove radioactive debris in Chernobyl.

Comment by Maxime Carrier on August 6, 2012 at 11:02am

Yes so they all die in horrible pain.

Comment by Jack Crossfire on August 6, 2012 at 2:23pm

Radiation destroying electronics is the mane problem.

Comment by Carl La France on August 6, 2012 at 3:38pm

Thanks for the clarification Jack.

Comment by Dorulet on August 6, 2012 at 11:24pm

Actually they tried using robots to clean up the Chernobyl disaster, but like Jack said, their electronics got fried. Fast. Several were used and if i remember correctly the one that work the longest was for 15 minutes before it committed suicide (jumped of the building). And at least one, as i recall, malfunctioned instantaneously when it was exposed to high levels of radioactivity.

Comment by Squalish on August 7, 2012 at 12:53am

They determined that they would use 'Robots' to clean it up, but the radiation destroyed their electronic circuits.  The robot team didn't want to admit failure.  So the project used what are euphemistically termed 'Bio Robots'

Comment by Ellison Chan on August 8, 2012 at 8:23am

Doesn't sound like that power plant is in meltdown.  I suspect that the drone will survive.  There's a big difference between ionizing radiation, and contamination. ;-)

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