Picture this: a plant and turbine hall transformed into a pit lane comprising 13 narrow  »pit boxes« separated for privacy only by black plastic sheets. Boxes, tools and cables piled in and around workstations, together with backpacks, water bottles and cookie wrappers. A total of 13 teams — a record number for the event — sat amidst the chaos they have created. Men and women of all ages hard at work: some fixated on their laptops, others fine-tuning their robots or animatedly discussing the next work steps. Such scenes are typical at the 2023 European Robotics Hackathon. The Orga team — led by Dr. Frank E. Schneider, deputy head of the »Cognitive Mobile Systems« department at Fraunhofer FKIE — and Fraunhofer FKIE staff members Dennis Wildermuth and Hans-Ludwig Wolf were in charge of the event’s scenarios, which were anything but normal. It took them almost a year to prepare for the five-day event, working to ensure above all that the scenarios and conditions were as realistic as possible. And the one location that could offer such a real-world environment was the NPP Zwentendorf, which has been the event venue since the first EnRicH in 2017, courtesy of the ADTA.

An NPP is no playground: Safety is the top priority

The nuclear reactor — structurally identical to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was destroyed in 2011 — was never put into operation following a referendum in 1978, and entering it is like stepping back in time. Protective suits that have never been used still hang behind the entrance gate. The narrow halls are poorly lit, parts of the floor are damp from condensation, steep steps lead to control rooms, and the walls are more than a meter thick. The air is stale, at times musty. »This nuclear power plant is anything but a playground,« says Schneider, who greeted participants at the opening of EnRicH, together with ADTA Director General Michael Janisch. For nearly half of the participants, it was their first time at EnRicH. »There are over 1,000 rooms, and some doors can only be opened from one side. The top priority is ensuring that everyone is safe.« Safety was especially important given that real radioactive sources were used, likely making EnRicH unique in the world. Three of the disciplines — Search & Rescue, Manipulation and Mapping — involved detecting these radioactive sources, alongside other tasks. It was also a component of the fourth discipline, which was introduced in 2021, with separate scenarios developed inside the building for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones. The ADTA provided the radioactive sources under the strictest safety protocols. »What’s more, while there are some areas in the building that have good lighting and WiFi coverage, others are very poorly lit and only have unreliable radio coverage, or they have to be explored in complete darkness and completely autonomously,« explains Schneider. The scenarios involved, for example, circumventing obstacles, rescuing dummies or turning valves — all in these challenging conditions.

Robots: once controlled with a joystick, now capable of autonomous missions

»EnRicH creates an environment that can’t be replicated in the laboratory,« says Dr. Michael Gustmann, head of technical equipment at Kerntechnische Hilfsdienst GmbH (KHG) in Germany, describing what makes the hackathon so special. The expert on nuclear facilities has been a member of the jury since the very first EnRicH. Over the past few years, a lot has changed in the field of robotics. »In the very beginning, robots were controlled with joysticks,« recalls Gustmann. »Instead, today, they are given a type of mission: They need to be able to rescue causalities or explore an area, for example. A lot of progress has been made in this regard, but there is still a great deal to be done.« For example, improvements are required in terms of communication: Even during the test runs, communication problems meant that robots moved little or not at all. »Solving these problems remains a monumental task,« says Gustmann. The TIERS team from the University of Turku travelled all the way from Finland to participate in the event for the first time. The 12-person group drove in four vehicles for three days to get to Zwentendorf, transporting one drone and two robots with them. They came away with the title of winners of the UAV Mapping category, along with new ideas and insights. »The entire site is very impressive,« says Team Leader Jorge Pena Queralta. He says the tasks were difficult and the corridors much narrower than his team expected. »But we learned a lot and the whole atmosphere is just really cool.«

Testing the development status of own systems

Johannes Mangler, leader of the seven-person FZI-RET team, also praised the event: »The testing area is great and the organization excellent.« The autonomy aspect of the event was of particular interest to Mangler and his team from the FZI Research Center for Information Technology in Karlsruhe. The team brought three robots with them; these are controlled via a control station comprising six monitors and should ideally work together. »Our goal was not winning,« explains Mangler. »For us, it was about confronting new challenges in order to test the development status of our systems.« Boris Illing, Dr. Matthias Nieuwenhuisen and Alexander Fitz-Gibbon from the Fraunhofer FKIE team share the same view. They put their dual-arm robot, Magni, into practical operation for the first time at EnRicH and obtained valuable insights. »In this year’s scenarios, we were able to gather a lot of test data and see how our individual systems interact in real scenarios. This would not be possible in a laboratory environment,« summarizes Illing, Fraunhofer FKIE robotics expert. His colleague Nieuwenhuisen adds: »We actually didn’t do so well in this year’s competition, but what’s more important is that we now know exactly what we need to do to develop our assistance functions, for example for indoor navigation.«

A greater focus on autonomy at EnRicH 2025

At the next edition of EnRicH in two years’ time, the two researchers will then get to test the functional improvements they have made in the meantime in challenging practical tests. ADTA Director General Janisch has already confirmed the fifth round of the hackathon. As one of the organizers, Schneider is already looking to the next event: »Preparations are already underway for the next EnRicH. Our initial thoughts include increasing the autonomy component and offering even more parallel scenarios.«