Development of a radioactive substance detection system integrating a Compton camera and a LiDAR camera with a hexapod robot

Herein, a system for locating radioactive substances using a hexapod robot equipped with a Compton camera and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) camera was developed and its performance was evaluated at FUGEN, a nuclear facility owned by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. During the evaluation test, the system visualized and identified the radioactive hotspot, wherein radioactive substances accumulated due to 60Co. This was achieved by projecting images of the radioactive substances acquired using the Compton camera onto a three-dimensional model of the work environment obtained using the LiDAR camera. Furthermore, the results of dose-rate measurements related to the work area obtained using a survey meter confirmed that the identified radioactive hotspot exhibited a dose rate that was one order of magnitude higher than that exhibited by the surrounding area.