Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Radiation tolerance of a small COTS single board computer for mobile robots

  • West, Andrew (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester) ;
  • Knapp, Jordan (UK National Nuclear Laboratory) ;
  • Lennox, Barry (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester) ;
  • Walters, Steve (UK National Nuclear Laboratory, Culham Science Centre) ;
  • Watts, Stephen (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester)
  • Received : 2021.10.06
  • Accepted : 2021.12.06
  • Published : 2022.06.25
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Abstract

As robotics become more sophisticated, there are a growing number of generic systems being used for routine tasks in nuclear environments to reduce risk to radiation workers. The nuclear sector has called for more commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices and components to be used in preference to nuclear specific hardware, enabling robotic operations to become more affordable, reliable, and abundant. To ensure reliable operation in nuclear environments, particularly in high-gamma facilities, it is important to quantify the tolerance of electronic systems to ionizing radiation. To deliver their full potential to end-users, mobile robots require sophisticated autonomous behaviors and sensing, which requires significant computational power. A popular choice of computing system, used in low-cost mobile robots for nuclear environments, is the UP Core single board computer. This work presents estimates of the total ionizing dose that the UP Core running the Robot Operating System (ROS) can withstand, through gamma irradiation testing using a Co-60 source. The units were found to fail on average after 111.1 ± 5.5 Gy, due to faults in the on-board power management circuitry. Its small size and reasonable radiation tolerance make it a suitable candidate for robots in nuclear environments, with scope to use shielding to enhance operational lifetime.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Dr. Ruth Edge of the University of Manchester Dalton Cumbrian Facility, for their support in undertaking irradiation experiments. This work was supported by UK Research and Innovation RAIN Hub EP/R026084/1. B. Lennox acknowledges support through the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, CiET1819\13.

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