A software is in development to try and help robots enter unknown territory. They are also being used to enter any unknown sites so that the people who can control them are safer and not faced with unknown danger. Createc opened up some engineering jobs and it was established in Cumbria and it is their job to try and develop imaging technology. The project is currently standing at £1.5m and it is designed to fund the idea of using robots to deal with radioactive material. The team have the belief that the future of nuclear work and decommissioning is all down to using smaller and even cheaper materials so that robots that are the size of humans can actually be deployed to plans that have not been mapped yet. The robots there would then be able to explore the entire plant and they would also be able to use their sensors to try and find out what needs to be done.

The idea is that robots need to be able to perceive what is around them and if this perception can be fed to a human operator then this can be used for really positive things. Information from the 3D sensors can then be used to create a map and this computer image process is what helps the data to be planned out properly. It all then fits together into one large 3D image and this can then work out the rest based on the location of the sensors.

When it is planned out in this way, the algorithm can then work out where the robot is and it can also be used to control the robot itself as well. This combined with virtual reality is just one of the many reasons why this type of technology is really taking off.