Autonomous Hazard Detection for Power Plant Safety

The Challenge

The objective was to design an autonomous robot capable of performing safety inspections in hazardous power plant environments. The system needed to navigate complex industrial layouts while simultaneously detecting multiple critical threats like gas leaks, radiation, and overheating equipment, which are too dangerous for continuous human monitoring.

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The Solution

An intelligent inspection robot governed by a dual fuzzy logic control system was designed. This architecture separated the core tasks: a dedicated navigation system used data from laser distance sensors and wheel encoders for robust obstacle avoidance, while a parallel fault detection system processed inputs from radiation, gas, and temperature sensors to make real-time hazard assessments and trigger alarms. The entire intelligent control logic was designed and validated using MATLAB's Fuzzy Logic Toolbox.