Technology development for the radiation hardening of robots

A radiation tolerant KAEROT/m2 system is being developed by a team composed of engineers and scientists from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Inventors' Enterprise Inc. The team is developing radiation tolerant data acquisition and control boards for CANDU reactor inspection. This paper outlines the work performed to harden a data acquisition and control system capable of operating in radiation environments with accumulated gamma ray dose exceeding one hundred krad(Si) (1 kGray(Si)). In this radiation hardening project, over twelve hundred parts were reviewed. As a result of this work, radiation-hardening technology has been developed to harden any robot. Details and the philosophy of the radiation hardened design are given. The technology is generally applicable to other robotic system. The development of this radiation hardened KAEROT/m2 made available a mobile platform that can serve as a main work and inspection system for hazardous tasks facing the world nuclear industry.