| Inspection tools & technologies
Right: Spot, a dog-like drone, will initially be used at a training facility next to a nuclear plant
Drone dogs monitor the nuclear power plant
Another concrete project linked to nuclear operations is Spot, a dog-like drone that will soon be put to work, initially at a training facility next to the Forsmark nuclear power plant.
“Soon, Spot will be used inside the nuclear power
plant, for example inside the turbine containment or other radioactive environments. There, it can patrol and make scheduled rounds, walking up and down stairs and transmitting the information in the form of video, images and measurements to a control room. Between missions, it recharges its batteries in its radiation-protected hut,” explains Anders Lindström.
Safety drives development The main task for Vattenfall’s Digital Inspections team
is primarily to find technology on the world market, sift out what works and finally implement it in the various areas of operation. The team works closely with the organisation in the field with tests and live assignments. “A major driving factor for the implementation of
new technology is personal safety for our employees and contractors. An inspection of a waterway in a hydropower plant may involve someone having to be hoisted 250m down a shaft to take pictures and note any damage. Entering a rock tunnel means first sending in a safety team to make sure no loose rocks can fall down and injure anyone. Now we can send in a drone for an initial status assessment without anyone having to risk their life,” he says. Drones are also becoming increasingly autonomous and can be controlled from a distance. The trend is called remote sensing. Drone-in-a-box is the name of a system where the drone is deployed, for example
at a remotely located power plant. There, it conducts its scanning rounds on its own and then returns to its protective box for recharging while waiting for the next mission. The operator does not even need to be in the same country. “Currently, the regulatory side is a challenge when it comes to autonomously flying drones outdoors, but we are working hard to solve those parts,” says Anders Lindström.
Intelligent drones In addition, AI technology is developing rapidly. Many
of us have tried self-learning systems like Chat GPT. AI is already being used to train robotic systems, which has exponentially accelerated progress in the field of robotics, says Anders Lindström: “AI is used in the actual learning of movements but also allows the systems to draw their own conclusions and make rational decisions based on that. Within five years, we will work with robots around us that we can talk to and reason with. That’s pretty cool. At the same time, all these new systems and technologies are collecting more data than ever before, and today’s systems are struggling to cope with this, while data classification challenges are growing with the increased amount of data. This means that our big challenges lie on the IT side going forward,” he says.
Above: Anders Lindstrom leads the Digital Inspections team
Below: Drone completes tunnel inspection
www.waterpowermagazine.com | December 2024 | 27
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