Teleoperated equipment for emergency response applications at the savannah river site

Abstract

Abstract The Robotics Development Group (RDG) of the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) is developing an array of teleoperated vehicles and support equipment to be used in emergency response applications. Teleoperators have been used to monitor and map radiation areas, perform decontamination tasks, and handle radioactive material. Other possible scenarios include video surveillance, remote sensing, and fire fighting. The primary justification for developing teleoperated vehicles and support hardware is to eliminate or significantly reduce personnel exposure to radioactive or other hazardous activities. This article discusses past, present, and future applications that use teleoperated equipment and current development work on several mobile teleoperators at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DoE) Savannah River Site (SRS).