THE MANUFACTURE AND SUPPLY OF A SPATIAL SNAKE ROBOT

The UK Atomic Energy Authority is a Non-Departmental Public Body carrying out research into the potential of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy and manages the UK & European Fusion Programme through its research arm Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in Oxfordshire.

RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) is one of UKAEA's recent investments in Remote Handling technology at their site in Culham. Along with the creation of RACE, UKAEA has invested in a new building in which was opened in June 2016. This new facility is enabling RACE to take on more outside contracts, applying the knowledge of its engineers to Remote Handling challenges in various fields.

As part of its ongoing development activities RACE is expanding its toolbox of robotic devices to widen and strengthen its capabilities in Robotics and Remote Handling. One of the key pieces of equipment required for the RACE toolbox is a Snake Manipulator.

RACE requires a Snake Manipulator that can be integrated (Fig. 1) into a high-level control system of RACE's own design called CorteX, in order to control a multitude of different systems. Tenderers should be aware that the UK Atomic Energy Authority will not proceed with awarding contract unless the tenderer meets the full scope of the requirements.