Guizhou develops maintenance robot for FAST

The maintenance robot can dock flexibly when dismounting. [Photo/ddcpc website]

A maintenance robot developed by Guizhou Air Control Technology Co, designed to dismount the feed receiver of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), has recently completed subsystem debugging and system assembly.

The robot is expected to complete system debugging in a simulation environment in May, complete debugging in a real environment in August, and undergo an approval inspection in November.

FAST is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope located in Pingtang county, Southwest China's Guizhou province. The feed receiver is 3 meters in diameter and weighs 2.4 metric tons.

As a core part of FAST's feed cabin, the feed receiver requires a high carrying capacity, stability and accuracy when being dismounted. The operation cost of the feed receiver is 300,000 yuan ($47,073) per hour, and it takes three days to be dismounted manually.

With the maintenance robot, the dismounting procedure will take less than 10 hours, and the robot can send the feed receiver quickly and safely to a warehouse five kilometers away, which can save on maintenance time and costs.

The research and development of the maintenance robot was co-started by Guizhou Air Control Technology Co and National Astronomical Observatories in November 2019.

In the future, the company will continue to deepen cooperation with universities and research institutes, attract more high-end talent in related areas, and accelerate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.