Robot ‘mice’ developed to inspect LHC beam pipes
A mouse-sized robot has been developed, in part by UK scientists, to inspect inaccessible parts of the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is based in Oxfordshire, partnered with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research – known as Cern – to develop the robot.
A first-of-its-kind, the robot – which is 3.7cm (1.5in) wide – travels autonomously through the narrow pipes making up the 27km-long (17 miles) collider.
The invention, which has made it much easier to check areas which can be extremely tight and cold, was recently awarded with a prestigious engineering honour celebrating innovation.
Nick Sykes, director of the UKAEA’s robotics centre, said he was “proud to apply” the organisation’s expertise to support Cern’s “world leading experiments”.
“By combining our remote handling experience with CERN’s scientific excellence, we’re helping ensure the Large Hadron Collider operates safely and efficiently for years to come,” he added.
The Large Hadron Collider, which opened in 2008, collides protons and anti-protons to explore the boundaries of the atomic world. It’s hoped these collisions lead to the discovery of new physics phenomena amongst the debris – such as the Higgs boson, which was found at the site in 2012.
This allowed the unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force into a new force christened the electro-weak force, a vital step towards creating a ‘Unified Field Theory‘, which would explain the entire cosmos in a single all-encompassing equation.
More than 1,200 “dipole” magnets, which are 15mtrs long and weigh 35 tons each, are arranged end-to-end to steer the particles around the circular tunnel – which is 100m (328ft) under the French-Swiss border, near Geneva.
Those magnets are kept at -271C, only two degrees above Absolute Zero, the temperature at which all electrical resistance vanishes, and surround the narrow beamlines, which themselves are vacuums – making the tunnel extremely difficult for humans to inspect.
Cern recently turned to the UKAEA’s robotics centre in Culham to develop a robotic solution to the issue – mostly due to the organisation’s expertise hazardous and hard-to-reach environments.
Together, they developed ‘PipeINEER‘ – which has a name derived from a portmanteau of pipe and pioneer. The 20cm (8in) long robot captures detailed images along the beamline, and then uses artificial intelligence to spot any deformities.
Dr Giuseppe Bregliozzi, from Cern, said the robot would “transform how we inspect and maintain the LHC”. “It marks a major step forward in keeping our experiments running smoothly,” he added.
It was recently awarded as Highly Commended for The Engineer’s Collaborate to Innovate Award – which Sykes said “highlights the power of international collaboration”.
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