This study introduces an automated robotic system designed to replace manual maintenance in cold rolling mills, where hazardous confined spaces present significant safety risks to workers. To enhance safety and efficiency, we modified a commercial aerial work platform into a teleoperated mobile robot. The system includes a redesigned end-effector equipped with high-pressure cleaning nozzles and a wide-angle camera for visual inspection. Experimental validation in both laboratory and field settings demonstrated the system's maneuverability and effectiveness. The results indicate that this robotic solution can successfully reduce safety hazards by minimizing manual intervention while ensuring high-quality cleaning and inspection in industrial rolling mills.

The importance of safety and emergency preparedness of nuclear power plants (NPPs) has been increasingly emphasized since the Fukushima accident. Recently, the Nuclear Robot and Diagnosis Team at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) initiated research on an unmanned emergency response robotics system. The objective of the research was to provide a practical means that countermeasure the initial accident stages of NPPs. Considering that the robotic systems that tried to mitigate the damage caused by the Fukushima accident did not work adequately, the robotic system to be developed should be tested in the testbed simulating the accident site of NPPs. In this paper, the recent domestic works on a robotic system for the safety of NPP were introduced.