As part of the Innovation UK competition, a company called TWI has developed a robot that is able to crawl through nuclear pipes and repair them, ensuring that nothing dangerous leaks through them.
Apart from being terrifying, LaserPipe is a solution to a problem that can get very serious very fast. Pipes can often be hard to repair, especially if they're buried deep underground and whether they are carrying water or nuclear sludge. In many situations, fixing a pipe will often mean sending a human through the pipe itself.
"The LaserPipe project goal was to develop a compact in-bore laser welding system and investigate the procedures for an all positional laser welding process," says the LaserPipe website. "The resulting laser welding head was integrated with a snake-arm robot, to demonstrate remote locating of weld joint, alignment of laser, and in-bore laser welding."
To repair a pipe, an operator controls LaserPipe and guides it to the right location. Because of the strength of the parts of LaserPipe, it's able to twist around pipes without needing any support, making it perfect for pipes with a lot of turns. Once the device has made it to the right location, it positions itself correctly and turns on its lasers, which are used to weld the pipe. The snake body can then retract in the same way that it came in.
Via: Motherboard
