About a month ago we were approached by two University of Nevada, Reno students about flying drones around a railroad tunnel. There have been a lot of people who want to fly drones in the area — this request was different! These were students of Professor Kostas Alexis. Prof. Alexis runs the Autonomous Robots Lab, part of the Computer Science and Engineering department at UNR.
With the permission of Tom Gray, I took the students to Tunnel 4. As we drove there, I heard quite an interesting story. These students are PhD candidates of Dr. Alexis working on a project for the United States Department of Energy. They are focused on 3D and radiation mapping for nuclear decommissioning projects — these are not your average railroad photographers or railfans! The project is called “NRI: Collaborative Research: Multi-Modal Characterization of DOE-EM Facilities.” The research project is about technology development.
From Dr. Alexis: “We aim to solve the problem with a combination of aerial and ground robots able to perform 3D mapping in real time and get radiation measurements (and spectroscopy). We work with Carnegie Mellon University together for this project.”
Their first visit was last night (June 21, 2017). They did some initial tests with the assistance of V&T VP Tom Gray. Tom sent me these photos:
Note in the first gallery photo the contrast between the 1869 technology and the futuristic drone in the foreground! Tom was able to provide maintenance of way equipment to help the students get a feel for doing mapping in a realistic environment. We look forward to participating in this research project as it develops!
We also have these maps, courtesy of Professor Alexis:
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