Dive Brief:
- A prototype testing robot developed by the Electric Power Research Institute adapts a commercial available device to scale vertical walls so it can test the structural integrity of concrete.
- Many nuclear reactors are aging, and the American Society of Civil Engineers figured that a lot of the nation's dams are the end of their design lives.
- The robot, trailing its 120-volt power cord, sucks itself against a wall, then moves on foam treads.
Dive Insight:
Contractors and their insurance companies have to like the idea of sending an electric-powered robot up a dam wall rather than erecting scaffolding from below or having humans rappel down it. A test done at the New York Power Authority's Robert Moses hydro dam near Niagara, N.Y., showed that the robot can climb, maneuver and follow a programmed path while equipped with various test instruments to asses the qualities of the concrete it's roaming.