HausBots awarded further Game Changers funding for wall climbing ROV project

A Birmingham-based engineering company that designs robotic technology to protect and maintain the built environment has been awarded Game Changers funding to develop a wall climbing robot for inspecting hard-to-reach areas. 

With hundreds of nuclear and non-nuclear facilities requiring monitoring and maintenance on the Sellafield site, this remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has the potential to help reduce inspection costs and reduce the requirement for humans to work at height. 

A unique hardware platform allows the robots to crawl on any surface including concrete, brick and metal, providing revolutionary 3D visual inspection data. The ROV can also cope with small gaps or cracks in surfaces and can be used on curved structures. It doesn’t rely on the use of either suction or magnetism. 

In this project, HausBots will focus on demonstrating how the ROV can be used for external non-ferrous tank and chimney stack inspections, where existing state-of-the-art solutions either do not function or have a limited capacity. The robot will be miniaturised, integrated with relevant inspection payloads, and adapted for a nuclear industry setting. 

The project is expected to conclude later in the year.