Experimental evaluation and characterization of radioactive source effects on robot visual localization and mapping

Elijah S. Lee; Giuseppe Loianno; Dinesh Thakur; Vijay Kumar

doi:10.1109/LRA.2020.2975723

Experimental evaluation and characterization of radioactive source effects on robot visual localization and mapping

Elijah S. Lee, Giuseppe Loianno, Dinesh Thakur, Vijay Kumar

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Robots are ideally suited to performing simple tasks in dangerous environments. In this letter, we address the use of robots for inspection of nuclear reactors which may be contaminated by radiation. The geometry of a reactor vessel is three-dimensional with significant clutter. Accordingly, we propose the use of small-scale, flying robots that are able to localize themselves and autonomously navigate around obstacles. Because of the constraints on size, we rely on cameras which are the best low power and lightweight sensors. However, cameras perform poorly in the presence of radioactivity and the impact of radiation on robotics systems is not well understood. In this letter, we (a) analyze the effects of radioactive sources on camera sensors, affecting localization and mapping algorithms, (b) quantify these effects from a statistical viewpoint according to different source intensities; and (c) compare different solutions to mitigate these effects. Our analysis is supported and validated by experimental data collected on a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) camera sensor exposed to radioactive sources in a hot cell.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	9006942
Pages (from-to)	3259-3266
Number of pages	8
Journal	IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume	5
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2020.2975723
State	Published - Apr 2020

Keywords

Robotics in hazardous fields
aerial systems
applications

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction
Mechanical Engineering
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Computer Science Applications
Control and Optimization
Artificial Intelligence

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10.1109/LRA.2020.2975723

Cite this

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title = "Experimental evaluation and characterization of radioactive source effects on robot visual localization and mapping",

abstract = "Robots are ideally suited to performing simple tasks in dangerous environments. In this letter, we address the use of robots for inspection of nuclear reactors which may be contaminated by radiation. The geometry of a reactor vessel is three-dimensional with significant clutter. Accordingly, we propose the use of small-scale, flying robots that are able to localize themselves and autonomously navigate around obstacles. Because of the constraints on size, we rely on cameras which are the best low power and lightweight sensors. However, cameras perform poorly in the presence of radioactivity and the impact of radiation on robotics systems is not well understood. In this letter, we (a) analyze the effects of radioactive sources on camera sensors, affecting localization and mapping algorithms, (b) quantify these effects from a statistical viewpoint according to different source intensities; and (c) compare different solutions to mitigate these effects. Our analysis is supported and validated by experimental data collected on a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) camera sensor exposed to radioactive sources in a hot cell.",

keywords = "Robotics in hazardous fields, aerial systems, applications",

author = "Lee, {Elijah S.} and Giuseppe Loianno and Dinesh Thakur and Vijay Kumar",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received September 10, 2019; accepted January 30, 2020. Date of publication February 21, 2020; date of current version February 7, 2020. This letter was recommended for publication by Associate Editor M. Kim and Editor Y. Choi upon evaluation of the reviewers{\textquoteright} comments. This work was supported by Qualcomm Research, University of Pennsylvania and New York University. (Corresponding author: Elijah S. Lee.) Elijah S. Lee, Dinesh Thakur, and Vijay Kumar are with GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA (e-mail: elslee@seas.upenn.edu; tdinesh@seas.upenn.edu; kumar@seas.upenn.edu). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 IEEE.",

year = "2020",

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doi = "10.1109/LRA.2020.2975723",

language = "English (US)",

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N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received September 10, 2019; accepted January 30, 2020. Date of publication February 21, 2020; date of current version February 7, 2020. This letter was recommended for publication by Associate Editor M. Kim and Editor Y. Choi upon evaluation of the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported by Qualcomm Research, University of Pennsylvania and New York University. (Corresponding author: Elijah S. Lee.) Elijah S. Lee, Dinesh Thakur, and Vijay Kumar are with GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA (e-mail: elslee@seas.upenn.edu; tdinesh@seas.upenn.edu; kumar@seas.upenn.edu). Publisher Copyright: © 2016 IEEE.

PY - 2020/4

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Experimental evaluation and characterization of radioactive source effects on robot visual localization and mapping

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Keywords

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