Autonomous HGV drives into the future at Sellafield

In a groundbreaking step for nuclear innovation, the first ever autonomous Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) has been driven on the Sellafield site, marking a major leap toward safer, smarter, and more efficient operations across the UK's most complex nuclear facility.

This exciting milestone was achieved as part of a Game Changers project aimed at revolutionising how waste and product packages are transported across the Sellafield site. By automating these vital logistics, the project promises to significantly reduce reliance on driver and vehicle availability, increase site-wide efficiency, and enhance safety standards.

At the heart of this success is Digital Concepts Engineering (DCE), who, for the first time, brought their Marionette™ control system into the nuclear arena. With a proven track record in the defence, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors, DCE adapted a Sellafield transport vehicle into an optionally crewed platform capable of both remote and fully autonomous operation.

Crucially, the Sellafield Transport Team supported this cutting-edge development by sending one of their own vehicles to DCE for conversion – streamlining the development and testing process and setting a new bar for collaboration.

Led by the Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) Value Stream, the project was developed in close partnership with the SNM Innovation Team, Sellafield Transport, and CE&I teams to enable the autonomous system to safely be demonstrated on a nuclear site.

The live demonstration showcased the vehicle navigating three routes on 'route replay', replaying the recorded routes taken by a real Sellafield driver, including a straight line run, full perimeter loop, and continuous circuit. Safety was front and centre, with DCE's Marionette™ providing the low-level safety-assured robotic control system, ensuring the vehicle always behaves in a known and safe way. Supplemented by remote operators using a dead-man's handle, an in-vehicle safety driver with access to an emergency stop button, and a third-party observer with a fail-safe safety radio kill switch. All four systems, three with human intervention, able to bring the system to a safe and immediate stop at any time.

In a particularly impressive display, the autonomous vehicle detected a barrier mid-route, safely altered its course to avoid a collision, and returned seamlessly to its pre-planned path – highlighting the system's sophisticated collision avoidance technology.

The DCE team spent a full week on-site, working closely with Sellafield transport operators to gain deep insight into the daily demands of vehicle operations. This real-world immersion is helping shape future phases of the project, which could include trailer control and eventually, a scalable solution for a fleet of autonomous vehicles.

Sellafield Ltd has expressed support for the next phase of development, which will see expanded technical capabilities and more ambitious on-site trials.

“The DCE deployment was the first autonomous HGV driven on the Sellafield site, and was a big step in autonomous systems for the NDA Estate,” said Ed MacNeil, of Sellafield’s SNM Innovation Team. “This capability has the potential to drastically increase capacity of nuclear material transports, reduce accidents and improve operational efficiencies over the coming years.”

“This project is DCE's first opportunity to prime work in the nuclear industry – and it has been incredibly rewarding,” said Jack Ryan, of DCE. “We’re proud to deliver Sellafield’s first ever deployment of an optionally crewed vehicle on a licenced nuclear site. With support from FIS360 and UKNNL through the Game Changers programme, we’re excited to continue developing this capability and help deliver on the ‘safer, faster, cheaper’ mission.”

With this demonstration, Sellafield and DCE have not only made history – they’ve opened the door to a smarter, more autonomous future for nuclear operations.