Million Plus

Tackling real world challenges is at the heart of the Centre of Excellence launched by LSBU and The Welding Institute (TWI) in 2015. The Centre is developing autonomous robotic systems that can carry out inspections with little or no human involvement. This allows them to venture into potentially deadly environments such as nuclear reactors and offshore oil and gas platforms which require continuous safety checks, exposing inspectors to significant risk.

The Centre is the culmination of more than 20 years’ partnership with TWI and is led by Professor Tariq Sattar of the LSBU School of Engineering.

This year, the team debuted its ‘Strongman’ wall climbing robot, which uses laser cutters to decommission nuclear plants, while a paper on the development of another climbing robot and ground-penetrating radar to inspect vertical concrete structures was awarded Paper of the Year by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology.

The Centre has also won three major European Horizon 2020 grants worth €1.9 million as well as two grants worth £188,413 from InnovateUK Robotics and Autonomous Systems.