These Remote Robot Arms Are How Humans Get Work Done Inside a Fusion Reactor
Maintaining the innards of a fusion reactor is the sort of job robots were conceived to handle, but even the best 'bot still needs controls from a human operator. Mini-documentarian Tom Scott find that at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, the UK's national lab for fusion research, the solution is a spindly-armed rig that for a person to muck around in the reactor with high levels of finesse, all from a safe distance.
Specifically the job title of the guy steering the arm is "Mechanical Maintenance Section Leader, Remote Handling." His end of things looks like a hydraulic drum with two struts jutting off of it like spider legs. He handles a trigger configuration that lets him move his fingers and wrist joints fluidly. "You don't even realize about it," John Wilkinson says in the video. "You're actually thinking about the job as you're there, and you're imagining the components around you." He says he can feel details as fine as a piece of tape on a surface, by running the robot's hands across it.
This sort of high-precision haptic interface is allowing people to accomplish amazing feats-like exploring into shipwrecks via robot divers-without worry for their physical safety. Which seems like the choice way to interact with a radioactive environment, given the option.
Source: Tom Scott.
