EX ROVR ASCENT

DESCRIPTION

EX ROVR ASCENT is an Industrial-Robot from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It is built for Security, Inspection, Monitoring. Key figures: 70 kg, 120 min runtime, 1000 mm reach, 6 degrees of freedom, released 2022.

EX ROVR "ASCENT" is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' autonomous, explosion-proof plant inspection robot. MHI developed it with ENEOS, building on remote-maintenance technology for nuclear power plants and a travel mechanism proven at Fukushima Daiichi, and launched the second-generation model commercially in April 2022. It performs round-the-clock inspection rounds in refineries and petrochemical plants where flammable gas may be present, keeping operators out of hazardous areas; it has since been trialled at ENEOS refineries, a Singapore thermal power plant and TotalEnergies' TADI test site. The robot is certified explosion-proof for Zone 1 under IECEx, ATEX and Japanese type approval (gas group IIB+H2, temperature class T3). Its main body is a single internally pressurised enclosure, with a large explosion-proof lithium-ion battery charged contactlessly at a charging station that can sit inside the hazardous area - about two hours of operation from two hours of charging. Main and sub crawler tracks let it climb stairs of up to 46 degrees up and down, turn on narrow landings and cross 20 cm steps and 15 cm ditches, and 3D-LiDAR SLAM gives fully autonomous multi-floor navigation and obstacle avoidance, including in low light. A wire-driven, explosion-proof 6-DOF manipulator with a small flame-proof camera and LED lighting reaches about 1 m and positions the camera close to gauges; a three-finger gripper allows light manipulation. Sensors cover visual imaging, thermal imaging, acoustic recording and gas concentration. Missions, inspection schedules and data are managed remotely through a browser and cloud over 4G/LTE. The robot weighs 70 kg and measures 450 mm wide, 540 mm high with the arm stowed and 700 mm long (1,200 mm with sub-tracks extended).

FEATURES