Methods and Technologies for Enhancing and Optimizing Power Plant Inspection Procedures

This paper considers different methods and approaches for improving power plant inspection procedures through innovative technological means. Main objectives are to provide timely, context dependent assistance and advice to human inspectors of power plant facilities, to minimize human errors and to increase inspection efficiency and reliability. A solution based on spatial awareness methods for inspector localization, registration and tracking through remote sensing of RFID tags and digital codes embedded in the surrounding environment is proposed. Possible extensions for industrial inspection robots are briefly discussed and potential applicability in nuclear power plant inspections is revealed.