Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R.-Tenn.), chairman of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, dons 3-D glasses while interacting with "Robo Sally" at the Sept. 14 event for the caucus on Capitol Hill that focused on the EM Science of Safety Initiative. Robo Sally is an advanced robot developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

From left, Westinghouse Senior Project Manager John Hubball; Sandia National Laboratories High Consequence Automation & Robotics Senior Manager Dr. Philip Heermann; the “Bimanual Dexterous Robotic Platform,” more commonly known as “Robo Sally,” which was developed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; EM Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto; and DOE Industrial and Economic Policy Senior Adviser David Foster.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sporting camera lenses for eyes, four wheels for feet, a pipestem torso and gloves covering metallic “fingers,” a 650-pound “Bimanual Dexterous Robotic Platform” more commonly known as “Robo Sally” waved and shook hands with people entering the Capitol Hill conference room.

   Though not human, Robo Sally put a face on the Sept. 14 event for the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus to highlight EM’s Science of Safety Initiative. Its developers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory demonstrated the robot and discussed potential applications in environmental cleanup, threat investigations and explosive ordnance removal.

   The event also featured a panel discussion spotlighting EM progress on Science of Safety, contributions being made by DOE national laboratories, how the private sector is putting advanced technologies to use and how the endeavor can help further improve worker safety and efficiency at EM sites.

   Alongside Robo Sally was a grasshopper-inspired “hopping” machine developed at Sandia National Laboratories. The size of a shoebox, the “hopper” can draw on a combustion-driven piston to leap over or onto obstacles more than 6 meters high, allowing it access to difficult-to-reach crannies. 

   To Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), the devices on display were proof of the know-how made possible through collaborations.

   “When we work together with our partners, the future is bright not only for EM but for all the technology innovations that allow us not only to work better at EM but at whatever our mission might be,” said Fleischmann, caucus chair.

   Spearheaded by EM Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto, the Science of Safety Initiative is aimed at deploying enhanced technologies where applicable throughout the complex, including supporting worker safety in high-hazard operations. 

   “This initiative is really personal and important to me,” Regalbuto told the audience of roughly 170 people. “I have had the opportunity over my career to work in pretty much all the same dangerous situations that our workers work in today. To me it’s always very important to understand what we are asking and tasking our workers to do.  

   “It’s time to modernize the way we do business,” she said. 

   Dr. Philip Heermann of Sandia National Laboratories spotlighted devices pioneered at the lab, including an energy efficient “walking robot” and an “X-ray tool kit” developed in cooperation with the military now is in widespread use by bomb squads throughout the country. 

   “One of the things that Science of Safety can do is bring workers together with technology providers to really build technology that is effective for people,” said Heermann, senior manager of High Consequence Automation & Robotics at Sandia. 

   John Hubball, senior project manager at Westinghouse, said robotics play a key role in ongoing cleanup of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant site in Japan.

   “We are sorting through that using robotics and camera systems and manipulators from up to two kilometers away,” Hubball said. “We are removing people from those hazards.”

   The same way the steel industry over time improved worker safety by engineering deadly hazards out of the workplace, the Science of Safety holds the potential to do the same for environmental cleanup, said David Foster, DOE senior adviser on industrial and economic policy.

   “It seems almost quaint that burns from sizing bits were once a routine problem,” said Foster, a former United Steelworkers official. “We engineered them out of the work process, and that is what is so exciting about the Science of Safety to me. Some of the best roboticists in the country are working with men and woman whose experiences can identify high-risk situations.”