Drones through ports

Project

UAVs in confined spaces.

Benefits

Benefits of flying the drones in cells are numerous: reduce the cost base of inspections, enable better plant monitoring, direct more costly interventions, and plan for decommissioning. This will benefit cost, safety, and accelerate our programme.

Current Status

Ongoing work with further stages keenly anticipated.

Delivery Partners

FIS360 Ltd, Colena Ltd t/a heliguy, ICE9 Robotics, Headlight AI Ltd

Contact Details

Andrew Cooney

technical.innovation@sellafieldsites.com

There is a challenge to monitor and characterise the content of active cells that have been closed for many years. These cells have thick walls and limited access, generally through 150 mm ports. Sellafield has used drones extensively in unconstrained environments due to their manoeuvrability and flexibility, but the problem is how to deliver, communicate and recover them in active cells with constrained access.

In 2022, Game Changers set out the ‘UAVs in confined spaces’ challenge and we received some very exciting and quite diverse proposals. Working with our subject matter experts and pilots, three projects were selected to take through to a feasibility study.

In an impressive display of innovation, three pioneering Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) recently showcased ground-breaking Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology: heliguy™, Headlight AI and ICE9 Robotics responded to our call for cutting-edge drone technology to help characterise difficult to access areas. After receiving Game Changers feasibility funding, the three SMEs customised existing drone technology to develop bespoke solutions capable of deployment through extremely small access ports.

Designing drones this small that retain the ability to maintain stable flight, and provide high-quality inspection footage, is a major challenge. Therefore, reaching a stage where the technology can be demonstrated after only a 12-week project was excellent. The next phase of work will involve a limited demonstration of these solutions to decide what to take to proof of concept and active demonstration phases.