A Cumbrian drone team are at the forefront of future technology which will change the way hazardous environments are monitored across the UK.
Amanda Smith, Sellafield’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipment programme lead, and Adrian Johnson, UAV equipment engineer, were asked to take part, as end users, in a national competition for remote monitoring of sensitive sites. The competition was fully funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and delivered by Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).
The pair, based at Sellafield’s Engineering Centre of Excellence at Cleator Moor, are helping shape the next phase of UAV technology by giving an end-user perspective on what will be of most benefit to decommissioning sites across the UK.
The expert duo were asked to give their input at a recent demonstration event for one of the projects funded by the NDA competition at Milton Keynes, due to their innovative use of UAVs at Sellafield and throughout the NDA estate.
The demonstration displayed cutting edge UAV tech, including designing brand new capability to enable drones to land on surfaces of any orientation, based on thrust-vectoring and suction-attachment technology, and then use an arm to deploy tools to carry out tasks.
Smith said: “This technology will revolutionise the use of drones in hazardous environments as it will transform them from being a monitoring tool to being used to actually do the job as well.
“These drones have multiple arms – and can be fitted with whatever tools you want to complete a task – it’s a bit like a Swiss Army knife approach. It’s technology we could be seeing used at Sellafield and throughout the NDA estate within the next two years.”
The next step, said Smith will be to working with manufacturers to tailor the technology to specific uses on site, working on the basis that involving the end user in the process from the outset “is a much more time-efficient and cost-efficient way of working and of developing new technologies.”
She added: “[It] makes sure that at Sellafield and the whole of the NDA estate we are at the forefront of these developments. There are so many situations you might not immediately think about where this technology can be most effective. We heard how this technology had been used in a range of defence and security applications, including the clean-up in the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings.”
Andrew Gray is innovation delivery manager at the NDA, which is providing over £700,000 in funding to develop innovations to help monitor sensitive sites without the physical presence of humans. He said: “These technologies will help us deliver our mission in different ways, enabling us to move our people away from harm and undertake work which will ultimately accelerate the safe and secure decommissioning of our sites. Involving the end user is crucial in all aspects of our competitions, to help frame and drive the technologies into forming the best possible solutions, and we are very grateful to the Sellafield team for their support.”
Ken Wahren of Autonomous Devices, one of the manufacturers involved in the competition, added: “This has been a remarkable project, not merely in terms of technical advancement, but also, more importantly, for the way it has established the fit between the technology and the needs of problem owners and end users such as Amanda and Adrian.
“We must take our hats off to Andrew and the entire NDA team for their willingness and ability to look beyond the status quo, and imagine a not-too-distant future where our technology has a positive daily impact across their organisation.
“We also have to acknowledge the important role of the DASA team, who always pushed us to prioritise the needs of the NDA customer, and kept us on our toes technically. We are now extremely excited at the prospect of driving this technology forward to the benefit of the NDA.”
