«MAESTRO» designed by the Atomic Energy Commission of France (CEA), is according to its creators, a pioneer and unique robot in the world that while combining the skills and tools of many of his colleagues, offers new capabilities when performing nuclear decommissioning tasks.
The Atomic Energy Commission of France (CEA) has applied in the design of «MAESTRO» its experience of many years dedicated to carry out its programs as a nuclear operator and responsible for the dismantling of its facilities and the management of waste from the same. All this has entailed that the robot is a model of technological prowess.
To develop it, CEA has been researching for over ten years along with the company Cybernetix, specializing in controlling integrity of oil installations and remotely operated systems in irradiated or contaminated environments.
Through this collaboration it has a control arm or «master» and a «slave» arm that two operators control from a remote room via reports in video format and 3D simulations that is sent to them from the place where the robot is working.
A world first
«MAESTRO» has made its debut this year in a plutonium extraction plant (UP1) to carry out laser cuts in dissolving tanks for reprocessing. As the CEA explains on its website these tanks are a challenge for dismantling operators because in addition to having a very strong level of residual radioactivity behind the concrete walls, of about 1 meter thick, their large size and mass, poor accessibility, and the meager medium in which they work are strong limitations.
However, the robot responds well to these circumstances performing various cuts of several centimeter on the steel structure of the tanks using laser «an operation that is really a world first
