Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is set to help develop robotic and automated systems for use in nuclear environments and other complex industrial spaces.
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The project will be conducted with the National Robotics & Automation Group (NRAG), a not-for-profit consortium made up of industrial automation, robotics and technology companies.
NRAG member companies - including Australis Engineering, the University of Wollongong, Britton Maritime, Chess Industries, Breseight Engineering, Jar-aerospace and Yokogawa - will provide engineering and manufacturing expertise, while ANSTO will serve as the testbed for the partnership.
Work is already underway to identify projects at ANSTO to automate existing processes and infrastructure, as well as opportunities to automate future facilities the nuclear organisation might build.
Solutions developed as part of the partnership between ANSTO and NRAG will be deployed at ANSTO's nuclear facility in Sydney's south upon completion, with the potential to export the tools or systems to other global markets within nuclear industries.
ANSTO’s chief engineer Con Lyras said that the solutions could also prove useful in a range of other industries.
“This is an exciting new partnership that will bring together the expertise of some of Sydney’s leading industrial robotics and automotive technology companies," he said.
“The sky really is the limit, this type of collaboration could also lead to advancements in systems for space exploration, for example, as we have a member [of our incubator program Nandin] currently working in this area.”
Nandin is ANSTO's incubator program which has contributed to projects including automated computer vision analysis of CCTV to improve safety during fire evacuations, and recently won NASA's SpaceApps COVID-19 challenge.
