In the nuclear industry, decommissioning activities inside gloveboxes are currently carried out manually by operators putting their hands inside the glovebox. This carries a risk of containment breach (most commonly glove failure) which may harm the operator.

Atkins Ltd are currently developing a robot system that is capable of performing glovebox operations using a Kinova Gen3 robot arm instead of a human arm.

Demonstration Kit for the Nuclear Industry

Atkins approached Design by Datum to aid in the design and manufacture of a table top demonstration box to display the capability of the Kinova Gen 3 arm in a glove box environment.

We began with a range of 2D Concepts to explore different form factors and features which could be useful during the demonstration process. As the box was going to be used at tradeshows it needed to be eye catching but still represent a glove box at its core. 

We then took the selected concept into 3D CAD, this data coupled with a detailed drawing pack was used by our UK manufacturers to produce the box.