Telerobotic Radiation Protection Tasks in the Super Proton Synchrotron

using Mobile Robots

David Forkel

1,2 a

, Enric Cervera

2 b

, Ra

ul Mar

ın

2 c

, Eloise Matheson

1 d

and Mario Di Castro

1 e

BE-CEM-MRO - European Organization for Nuclear Research, Espl. des Particules 1, 1211 Meyrin, Switzerland

Jaume I University, Avinguda de Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n, 12006 Castell

o de la Plana, Castell

o, Spain

Keywords:

Hazardous Environment, Automatic Inspection, Mobile Robot, Telerobotics.

Abstract:

In this paper a complete robotic solution is presented, which allows the teleoperation of the radiation survey

in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator at CERN. Firstly, an introduction to radiation protection is

given. Subsequently, the execution of the radiation survey in person is described and the potential of robotic

solutions for such missions is outlined. After providing a brief state of the art on the subject, the development

of the robot base, as well as its component selection and design is shown. Hereafter, the software implemen-

tation is explained. The test procedure of this project includes the most important requirements for a correct

execution of the survey, as well as the operational steps and data treatment in detail. The results underline

the correct execution of the mission, and show the advantages of the teleoperated robotic solution, such as the

improved and uniﬁed measurement conditions. Thus, this robotic system will allow to signiﬁcantly reduce the

radiation dose of the radiation protection staff. For further development, the automation of this task is planned,

which presupposes the gradual autonomization of the robotic system from assisting the user to the self-reliant

execution of the survey.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 On the Importance of Radiation

Protection at CERN

CERN operates the world’s largest accelerator com-

plex to provide high energy particle beams to a world-

wide community of physicists who are studying the

basic constituents of matter. To this end, researchers

investigate the products of collisions between high

energy particles with the help of sophisticated par-

ticle detectors and analysis software. CERN’s ac-

celerator complex straddles the French-Swiss border

near Geneva. The so-called injectors (LINAC4, Pro-

ton Synchrotron (PS) and Super Proton Synchrotron

(SPS)) of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the

LHC itself successively accelerate the particles to in-

creasingly higher energy. Finally, the two LHC proton

beams are brought into collision at the so-called col-

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7947-8282

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5386-8968

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2340-4126

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1294-2076

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2513-967X

lision points of the four LHC experiments (ATLAS,

CMS, LHC-b and ALICE) with a center of mass en-

ergy of 14 TeV (CERN, 2022).

The operation of accelerators is inevitably related

to the loss of beam particles, either intentionally e.g.

through collimation, dumping or collisions or acci-

dentally by degraded beam transmission. The “lost”

particles interact with other particles (collisions) or

matter. Radioactive isotopes are created by various

nuclear processes and in function of type and energy

of the ”lost” particle and the chemical properties of

the matter. As a consequence, the accelerator and de-

tector components, tunnel structure, liquids like wa-

ter and gases like air become radioactive. The gamma

and beta radiation ﬁelds caused by the radioactive de-

cay of the induced radioactive isotopes (“residual ra-

diation”) represent the major source for radiation ex-

posure of workers to ionising during repair and main-

tenance of the accelerators and detectors. The pri-

mary objective of Radiation Protection (RP) at CERN

centers on minimizing the exposure of individuals to

ionizing radiation. Furthermore, the reduction of the

radiological impact on the surrounding environment

is assigned an overriding role (Forkel-Wirth et al.,

2013). The main principles of radiation protection

Forkel, D., Cervera, E., Marín, R., Matheson, E. and Di Castro, M.

Telerobotic Radiation Protection Tasks in the Super Proton Synchrotron using Mobile Robots.

DOI: 10.5220/0011276600003271

In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2022), pages 451-458

ISBN: 978-989-758-585-2; ISSN: 2184-2809

451

legislation have been deﬁned in Recommendation 60

published by the International Commission on Radi-

ological Protection (ICRP, 1991). They are described

as follows:

• Justiﬁcation of the practice: Any practice involv-

ing the exposure of persons to ionizing radiation

requires justiﬁcation.

• Optimization of protection: Procedures that result

in radiation exposure of individuals must be sub-

ject to a continuous optimization process to re-

duce the radiation doses received by the affected

persons. In addition, the ALARA principle ap-

plies, according to which personal and collective

doses must always be kept as low as reasonably

achievable.

• Dose limits: The legal limits regarding personal

radiation doses must be respected.

These recommendations have been fully integrated

into CERN’s radiation safety code (CERN, 2006).

1.2 The Radiation Protection Survey in

the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS)

Radiation surveys of CERN accelerators are a long-

standing practice and part of CERN’s approach to

ALARA. Their purpose is twofold:

1. Measuring the radiation dose rate along the accel-

erator for a radiological risk assessment and input

for the organisation and dose planning of repair

and maintenance work.

2. Supporting beam-operation in its search for lo-

cations of beam-losses and optimization of trans-

mission.

Radiation surveys in the SPS accelerator have

been performed by CERN personnel (Kershaw et al.,

2013). A radiation protection technician in an electri-

cal vehicle drives along the 7 km circumference of the

accelerator. The dose rate is continuously measured

with a radiation detector from about 70 cm distance

from the machine components and at the height of the

beam axis. Such a survey results in approximately

20,000 data points. This general survey is reﬁned by

a more detailed survey of the six Long Straight Sec-

tions (LSS) of the tunnel by radiation protection tech-

nicians walking along the accelerator. They measure

the dose rates at 40 cm distance and on contact of the

accelerator components. After visualizing the data,

the results of the general survey are used as an indi-

cator of locations of increased radiation levels and for

information of the operational team on the develop-

ment of beam loss points whereas the data of the de-

tailed survey are used for job and dose planning. Typ-

ical results can be seen in Figure 1 (D. Forkel-Wirth,

M. Silari (Editors), 2010).

Figure 1: Radiation survey results 2008/09 realised in sector

2 of the SPS.

1.3 Opportunities and Challenges of

Mobile Robotic Solutions for

Inspection at CERN

Figure 2: Train Inspection Monorail (TIM).

Regarding the potential of robotic solutions for in-

spection it must be stated that CERN has been ex-

ploiting robots for a long time – in the beginning

mainly for handling highly radioactive components

like the ISOLDE targets (Catherall et al., 2017). A

new type of robot had been successfully developed

for the LHC, the multi-functional Train-Inspection-

Monorail (TIM) shown in Figure 2 (Alessandro Masi,

2017). As the name indicates, it combines an elec-

trical train with a monorail that already existed in the

Large-Electron-Positron (LEP) Collider, the accelera-

tor that was preceding the LHC. TIM is regularly used

for visual inspections in the LHC accelerator tunnel,

functional tests of the 3,600 beam-loss-monitors and

radiation surveys. In the latter case, TIM performs

both the general and the detailed radiation survey

(Castro et al., 2018). These functions allow a consid-

erable reduction of accelerator down-time as the tasks

can start immediately after beam stop, and limits the

needs of personnel carrying out this task.

TIM shows the advantages of robotic solutions,

ICINCO 2022 - 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

452

being a very versatile and promising tool for vari-

ous types of inspections in radioactive environments.

Robotic solutions contribute to the overall objective

of optimizing inspection and maintenance tasks in the

accelerator complex, both in view of radiation protec-

tion of workers and the overall efﬁciency increase of

beam operation.

2 STATE OF THE ART ON

TELEOPERATED ROBOTIC

INSPECTION SYSTEMS IN

HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS

Complex scenarios such as accelerators, underwater

facilities and nuclear plants require a high degree of

knowledge in order to be able to inspect and also in-

teract with the environment safely (Veiga Almagro

et al., 2020). Sometimes the necessary knowledge to

inspect a scientiﬁc facility such as the ones at CERN

is not only present in a single person, so the use of a

telerobotic system is mandatory (Lunghi et al., 2019).

In fact, the situation becomes even more critical

when the communication channel is constrained, a

challenge that can be partly mitigated by giving more

intelligence to the robot, so that the operator interacts

in a more supervised way, while reducing the need

of communication bandwidth. This is the case of un-

derwater robots which, once submerged, can maintain

the communication link via Visual Light Communica-

tion and Radio Frequency modems at short distances,

and sonar at long distances, being necessary to ad-

just the level of autonomy accordingly (Rubino et al.,

2017).

In these kind of hazardous environments it is nec-

essary and convenient to perform a pre-inspection of

the environment, before deciding the next steps in or-

der to perform, for example, maintenance operations.

The most recent research experiments performed in

this ﬁeld involve the use of multiple robots, being able

to cooperate in order to recover, and transport big ob-

jects (Pi et al., 2021).

A signiﬁcant state of the art on teleoperated robots

for exploration and inspection is also represented by

the latest developments of the lunar rover as part

of the YUTU-2 mission. In February 2022, several

small intact spheres of translucent glass were discov-

ered and inspected. This glass can contain informa-

tion about the moon’s history, including the composi-

tion of the lunar mantle and impacts (Michelle Starr,

2022).

Another indispensable application of telerobotic

systems involves radioactive environments. Robots

are increasingly taking over tasks at nuclear plants

to simplify inspection procedures or reduce the ra-

diation exposure of the personnel. One example is

the LAROB underwater robot, which can remotely

inspect reactor vessels in nuclear power plants under

laser guidance. LAROB contributes to carrying out

the mandatory inspections more efﬁciently, while re-

ducing the operator’s workload. As a result, the sys-

tem has the potential to drastically reduce the critical

path of reactor vessel inspection (Kim et al., 2014).

3 A MOBILE ROBOTIC

SOLUTION FOR RADIATION

PROTECTION OPERATIONS

3.1 Hardware

3.1.1 Omnidirectional Robot Base

For the SPS radiation survey, a new robot has been

designed at CERN. An omnidirectional base was cho-

sen, using four mecanum wheels located in paral-

lel (Prados Sesmero et al., 2021). The omnidirec-

tional behavior of the platform is created by the pas-

sive rollers attached to each wheel. The movement

of these in combination with the rotary motion of the

four wheels results in a force transfer in another direc-

tion, in such a way that sideways and diagonal move-

ments, as well as rotations around the center of the

base, are made possible. The rubber rollers are pro-

tected by the wheel frame. Depending on the ground

conditions, a different movement behavior can be ob-

served. Especially on smooth or slippery surfaces,

a slippage of the wheels and the rollers can occur,

which results in a misalignment in any direction (Park

et al., 2010).

The frame structure and arrangement of the

mecanum wheels in the longitudinal direction at the

bottom corners of the frame provides several advan-

tages. First of all, the design is simpliﬁed, offers sufﬁ-

cient and equal space for motor mounting and allows

the connection of these motor sets centrally within the

frame. Moreover, this structure is compact and allows

all required sensors and other hardware to be housed

within the frame, so that only the wheels extend from

the frame. This offers signiﬁcant advantages in ma-

neuverability when traversing narrow passages or lim-

ited spaces. Another beneﬁt is the redundancy of the

system. Thus, even in the event of a motor failure, it

is still possible to complete the robot’s tasks through

controlling the three remaining wheels. In addition,

adjustment and correction algorithms in the kinematic

Telerobotic Radiation Protection Tasks in the Super Proton Synchrotron using Mobile Robots

453

model can compensate for such an error.

However, this locomotion arrangement presents

some disadvantages that need to be considered: The

aforementioned slippage of the mecanum wheels re-

sults in a positioning error that can falsify the odom-

etry. It is therefore crucial that the localization of the

robot is not based on the motor encoder values alone,

but rather supported by additional sensors such as

cameras (visual odometry), LiDAR’s (LiDAR odom-

etry) or IMU’s. Another disadvantage concerns the

energy efﬁciency of the wheels, that is signiﬁcantly

lower than of conventional ones, which translates into

increased battery consumption. This can be compen-

sated for by sufﬁcient battery planning, as well as a

reduction in the maximum speed, which must be ap-

plied in any case due to the safety regulations within

the tunnel system of the accelerator complex.

3.1.2 Sensor and Component Selection

The following devices were selected for equipping the

omndirectional base (Prados Sesmero et al., 2021):

• 3 cameras (Axis F44 main unit / F1035-E sensor

units) providing a high deﬁnition camera stream

for teleoperation

• an inertial measurement unit (VMU931), con-

tributing to the localization accuracy of the robot

base

• a radiation sensor (Atomtex BDKG24) to measure

the radiation dose rate

• a 4G LTE Wi-Fi router (Teltonika RUT240) al-

lowing external access over a client in a different

network, as well as local communication for test-

ing

• a robot arm that moves the radiation sensor into

the optimal measurement position and also per-

mits a detailed visual inspection with the attached

gripper camera. The Kinova® Jaco 2 is used.

Moreover, the robot features a small form factor

PC for the execution of all processes. The cameras,

as well as the Kinova® robot arm, are connected to

the network interface of the PC via an Ethernet hub.

3.1.3 Mechanical Design

The main structure of the mechanical design is char-

acterized by the use of aluminum proﬁles. These give

the system robustness and rigidity. Furthermore they

guarantee the protection of the internal components.

The main characteristics of the design are the fol-

lowing:

• Four lead acid batteries, placed on the sides. The

capacity of these are 15 Ah, which guarantees

about 4 hours of operation, depending on the ve-

locity of the base as well as the robot arm usage

• A magnetic connector that facilitates the correct

launch of the charging process

• Four possible localization for cameras or Li-

DAR’s behind the wheels, placed where the ﬁeld

of view is sufﬁciently large

• A support for the radiation sensor attached to the

end effector of the robotic arm

The main dimensions of 526 × 360 × 190 mm,

were chosen to allow the passage of the robot through

the cut-out gaps of the security doors that are separat-

ing the various accelerator sectors. The weight of the

robot amounts to approximately 45 kg, including the

robot arm and all necessary components. The reach

of the mounted robot arm including the radiation sen-

sor is approximately 1100 mm (Prados Sesmero et al.,

2021). The robotic arm has been placed so that it can

fold down below the height of the base to allow ma-

neuverability in low-proﬁle environments, such as the

secure gate cut-out. The gripper camera serves as a

visual guidance for the operator. Besides the radia-

tion surveys, the combination of robot arm and cam-

era allows a wide variety of additional teleoperation

tasks. Visual inspection of accelerator components

and infrastructure, leak repair, drilling, component re-

placement welding, as well as visual, variable check-

ing (measuring oxygen concentration or temperature)

and many more, can be performed by replacing the

end effector tool. Figure 3 shows the fully equipped

robot.

Figure 3: Cross-section of the omnidirectional robot base

with Kinova® Jaco 2 robot arm.

3.2 Software Implementation

3.2.1 The CERN Robotic Framework (CRF)

The Cern Robotic Framework represents an innova-

tive modular architecture for robotic inspection and

ICINCO 2022 - 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

454

telemanipulation in harsh and semi-structured envi-

ronments (Di Castro et al., 2018). It covers all aspects

of robotic interventions at CERN, from the speciﬁca-

tion and operator training, the choice of the robot and

its material best suited for an environment with radio-

logical hazards, to the realization of the intervention,

including procedures and recovery scenarios. Thus,

it can be described as a multidisciplinary toolbox that

represents a complete in house software solution and

is indispensable for the operation of ongoing inter-

ventions as well as the development of new robotic

projects at CERN. Figure 4 shows the scope of this

framework.

Figure 4: Modules of the Cern Robotic Framework (CRF).

3.2.2 Overall Architecture

The overall architecture of the robotic control system

is shown in Figure 5.

At the top of the structure stands the Human Robot

Interface, which allows the operator to take control

of all necessary components of the robot, while be-

ing informed about the current status. In this case,

the operator can control the robot base and robot arm

independently via keyboard or controller input. For

visual orientation, the four video streams of the cam-

eras attached to the robot are displayed. In addition,

the current radiation dose measured by the radiation

sensor attached to the robot arm and the current ve-

locity of the base are indicated. Using the local net-

work connection, the client connects to a virtual pri-

vate network to which the server in the robot is also

connected. This allows a remote launch of the Robot

Arm - and Robot Base Communication Point on the

server PC. The communication points establish the

connection between the Graphical User Interface and

the robot. For this purpose, the Transmission Control

Protocol (TCP) is used. The communication points

start the control loops for the robot base and the robot

arm and thus the mecanum wheels of the robot base

Figure 5: Overall architecture of the teleoperated robot for

the robotic radiation survey.

and the joints of the Kinova® Jaco 2 can be teleop-

erated by the HRI on the client side. Furthermore,

the logging sequence can be launched. It accesses

the built-in odometry of the robot base, as well as the

radiation sensor data. The collected data are subse-

quently stored locally on the robot’s PC.

4 EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION

4.1 Test Procedure

4.1.1 Preliminary Requirements

In order to carry out a successful radiation survey,

several requirements need to be considered during the

operation. Worth pointing out are the safety mea-

sures, such as the secured operation without human

interaction, as well as the importance of protecting

the equipment and machines in the tunnel from any

damage that might be caused through robotic opera-

tion.

Considering this early test phase, it was therefore

decided to start the operation after the regular work-

ing hours, and in consultation with the CERN Control

Centre (CCC), which gave clearance to use the robot

for a robotic intervention inside the tunnel of the SPS.

Furthermore, two operators carried out the mission in

order to guarantee a review of the execution steps and

to gain a better overview of the overall situation. The

maximum velocity of the robot during the survey was

limited to 1.5 m/s. This measure ensured a safer oper-

ation by limiting the probability of potential crashes

Telerobotic Radiation Protection Tasks in the Super Proton Synchrotron using Mobile Robots

455

with structural elements or equipment in the tunnel of

the SPS.

Since the aim of the robotic radiation survey, as in

the manual survey, described in section 1.2 , is to mea-

sure the radiation dose rate along the SPS machine, it

is therefore also necessary to comply with the require-

ments given by this inspection process. This includes

respecting a maximum distance of 70 cm to the beam

axis when taking the survey measurements. Further-

more, the operation time shall not exceed 2 hours,

in order not to signiﬁcantly disrupt maintenance ac-

tivities in the SPS. An additional difference between

the teleoperated execution of the survey compared to

the existing procedure concerns the 19 security doors,

which are normally opened manually by the person-

nel, but have to be passed with the robot through a

cut-out rectangle measuring 30 cm x 40 cm.

4.1.2 Operation Steps

The mission starts by activating the robotic sys-

tem. The charging is interrupted and the commu-

nication points of the robot base and the robot arm

are launched. By using the CERN Robotic GUI, the

robot is then moved out of the charging station, and

the robot arm is brought into an upright position so

that the radiation sensor is aligned with the beam axis.

After this, the system is ready for operation. To start

the survey, the closest security gate is approached to

provide a precise localization point at the beginning

of the data recording. The security gates are passed

by folding the robot arm back in such a way that the

arm is below the height of the robot base like shown

in Figure 6. The camera on the end effector is used

for guidance through the cut-out in the gate. Directly

after passing the gate, the robot arm is brought back

into the operation pose illustrated in Figure 7. The

logging sequence for measuring the radiation dose is

subsequently launched and the data is saved locally on

the storage medium of the PC. The data set includes

the measured radiation dose, as well as the odometry

data of the motor encoders integrated in the mecanum

wheels. In the following data analysis, this allows the

mapping of the measured radiation value to its posi-

tion in the SPS tunnel.

The measurements are always recorded from one

safety gate to the next, resulting in a total of 19 data

sets. The path between the start and end point is com-

pleted in one continuous run at a constant speed of 1.5

m/s. The maximum distance to the beam axis of 70

cm is maintained, using line markings as a reference

during the operation through the gripper camera. Spe-

cial attention has to be paid to the connection status

between the robot and the 4G repeaters in the tunnel

system of the SPS. By monitoring the ping develop-

Figure 6: SPS robot passing one of the 19 secure doors.

ment between client and server pc, conclusions can

be drawn about connection problems before the com-

plete loss of control occurs. If in exceptional cases

there may be a temporary loss of control, the veloc-

ity of the robot is automatically set to 0. However,

the robot base has no brakes, therefore the wheels

will coast before coming to a complete stop. In addi-

tion, the ground conditions must be taken into account

during teleoperation. As the ﬂoor is often inclined,

counter steering is required in order to maintain a con-

stant distance to the magnets. In addition, especially

in the vicinity of the 6 access points, the operator must

be aware of any cables, maintenance tools or other

objects in the way and navigate around them. Once

the 7 km circumference of the SPS tunnel has been

covered and all 19 secure gates have been passed, the

robot arm can now be brought back into the parking

pose and the base will be driven into the charging sta-

tion. Subsequently, the locally saved measurements

are transferred to the client PC and the charging pro-

cess is launched. In the most recent surveys, a total

operation time of 1h 40’ - 1h 55’ was measured, and

therefore, the limit of 2 h was respected.

Figure 7: SPS Robot taking radiation measurements.

ICINCO 2022 - 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

456

Figure 8: Data partitioning map of the SPS.

4.1.3 Data Treatment

The post processing of the data serves two main pur-

poses for this survey. On the one hand, the map-

ping between the position of the measurement and the

measured value must be carried out, including the cor-

rection of the positioning error, and on the other hand,

modiﬁcations are made to optimize the visualization

of the results. The odometry data of the robot base

provides the distance travelled or the so-called ”dis-

tance cumul

ee (DCUM)”, which approximates the

circumference of the SPS. As can be seen in Figure

8, the SPS is divided into 6 sextants. Within these

60° sectors, the unit of arc minutes is used for pre-

cise positioning. The dashed yellow elements along

the circumference of the SPS represent the position

of the secure gates. The 19 individual measurements

are then merged into 6 sextant data sets.

The unit of the radiation measurements is micro

Sievert per hour. In addition to these adjustments, the

position error of the measurement is corrected. This

is necessary due to the fact that mecanum wheels tend

to slip during acceleration and deceleration, which

means that the registered traveled distance is higher

than the real value. However, since the exact location

of the security doors is known, the position error can

be subsequently compensated by homogeneously ap-

plying the absolute percentage error to the measured

odometry in one segment run.

4.2 Results of the Robotic Radiation

Protection Survey

In Figure 9 the results from the December 2021/Jan-

uary 2022 robotic RP surveys in Sextant 2 of the SPS

are shown:

Figure 9: Robotic radiation survey results December 2021 /

January 2021 realized in sector 2 of the SPS.

The graph has a clear similarity to the 2008/2009

survey presented in section 1.2 . The increased mea-

suring frequency of the radiation sensor of 50 Hz re-

sults in an overall lower noise level. In direct com-

parison to Figure 1 , slightly higher radiation doses

were recorded than in the manual procedure. The rea-

son for this lies in the optimized positioning of the

radiation sensor on the robot arm at the level of the

beam axis, as well as a constant distance of the robot

towards the magnets of the SPS. A total of approx-

imately 500,000 data points were recorded in each

of the two teleoperated surveys, which roughly cor-

responds to one measurement point every 14 mm.

5 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK

In summary, it can be concluded that a complete

robotic solution has been developed, which allows the

radiation survey to be carried out in a teleoperated

manner. In particular, the absence of personnel in the

tunnel of the SPS during the survey is the main advan-

tage of this system. Consequently, the radiation dose

of the staff, which carries out the survey in person un-

der the current terms, can be saved. Moreover, the

functional advantage of more precise measurements

due to optimized conditions is also a signiﬁcant ad-

vancement. The next major change is the construction

of a second identical robot including an additional

charging station. This change provides more ﬂexibil-

ity in the execution of the survey. For instance, the

operation time in the tunnel can be reduced to half if

each robot covers 3 sextants and switches to the op-

posing charging station at the end of the operation.

The greatest potential of the project develop-

ment lies in the gradual autonomization of the robot.

Whereas at the current stage the operator’s attention

is indispensable for the execution of the task, the goal

for the future development will be to increase the as-

Telerobotic Radiation Protection Tasks in the Super Proton Synchrotron using Mobile Robots

457

sistance level so that the operator’s workload is pro-

gressively reduced until only potential intervention is

required. The ﬁrst step of gradual autonomization

describes an assisted operation (Florian Petit, 2020).

All repetitive tasks are performed automatically. In

this case, the robot arm poses for achieving the park-

ing position, operation pose or even the folding pro-

cedure as shown in Figure 6 will be performed au-

tonomously. Furthermore, safety strategies concern-

ing collisions or communication loss are being imple-

mented. Level 2 describes an autopilot that is capable

of independently performing certain tasks under op-

timal conditions. Applied to this project, this means

the autonomous navigation of the start to the end point

of the measurements, whereby more complicated pro-

cesses, such as crossing security gates and navigating

through environments with obstacles, will not be in-

cluded yet. Therefore the operator is required to mon-

itor the situation at all times. Level 3 describes a com-

pletely autonomous execution of all steps of the oper-

ation. The user is only informed in critical situations

and is also given a buffer time to react appropriately to

the situation. Thus, this stage of development would

include all tasks of the survey, from mission prepara-

tion, measurement acquisition and security gate cross-

ing to the successful completion of the survey and de-

activation of the robot. In addition, security strategies

will be developed to take effect in case of execution

errors and will either correct the problem itself or give

the user time to intervene.

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