Abstract:

"In order to improve safety and machine availability at CERN, robots are employed for remote inspection and manipulation, facilitating maintenance and monitoring in complex, hazardous, and hard-to-reach areas across the accelerator complex. By transitioning teleoperated tasks into autonomous procedures, these robots significantly reduce the need for constant supervision, saving valuable operator time. Additionally, autonomous systems simplify complex operations, allowing non-expert personnel to perform advanced tasks without requiring extensive technical training. Moreover, autonomous execution ensures consistent control and measurement conditions, which are crucial for maintaining repeatability for robotic interventions. One such use-case scenario is the robotic radiation survey in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), which plays a crucial role in Radiation Protection at CERN, enabling radiological risk assessments and facilitating dose planning for maintenance operations. Additionally, it supports beam operations by locating beam losses. In recent years, the manual execution of this survey by Radiation Protection (RP) personnel has been thoroughly analyzed with the aim of transitioning to robotic interventions. This shift involves the use of permanently installed mobile robots, known as Measurement & Inspection Robots for Accelerators (MIRAs). This presentation outlines the evolution from teleoperated surveys, highlighting their limitations, to the progressive integration of autonomous approaches. These include an autopiloted measurement procedure with adaptable parameters, a dual solution for automated safety gate crossing and parking, and the use of graph-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for mapping and navigation in challenging areas of the SPS, such as the six access points and the beam-dump area. Finally, an evaluation of the autonomous radiation survey is provided, showcasing current achievements and future challenges."