We became one of the leading technology partners of the Granada Particle Accelerator

The main actors, both public and private, of the so-called “Big Science” industry met this Tuesday at the first edition of the I+DONES Forum, focused on the particle accelerator project located in Granada.

It was a meeting focused on promoting research and development activities and fostering cooperation between the various partners of IFMIF-DONES, the leading scientific infrastructure for testing, validating, and qualifying the materials for future fusion power plants.

As a party involved in the development of the Neuron Dones project, Plain Concepts has been present as one of the main actors of the meeting, where we have been able to talk about the projects we are involved in, as well as to make a live demonstration of MRLink Unit, our unique solution in the market to control Spot remotely, the quadruped robot of Boston Dynamics.

NEURON DONES Project

Fusion energy has been one of humanity’s greatest scientific challenges for over 70 years. It is a safe, sustainable, and massive source of energy, based on an inexhaustible fuel and distributed all over the planet, which could be the key to the energy problems of the next half-century.

All this approach will become a reality in the future with the DEMO power plant. It will confirm the technological and economic feasibility of fusion energy.

Neuron Dones is the project that will generate solutions to improve the sustainability and safety of the plant, which will use artificial intelligence for intelligent management of operations.

From Plain Concepts, we are developing a tool that will allow the teleoperation of a high-precision robotic hand, which mimics the sensitivity and precision of a human hand, through immersive reality. In addition, we are also engaged in researching and developing tools that will perform the evolution control of the work through 3D data analysis, which will compare the scanned models with the theoretical ones.

In fact, Spot has been one of the protagonists of the day and has grabbed all the attention as an example of the most sophisticated advances in the industry around the particle accelerator, as well as being key to helping generate wealth and achieve the objectives.

“This is a component of the I+D we are developing together with the company Plain Concepts at the consortium’s request, and it tells how external industry can help the particle accelerator. This robot is intended to be able to be used inside a place where while the machinery is running, no person can enter, and there are small operations that don’t justify stopping the whole machine to be able to enter and restart. This can save us a lot of time, and this robot will have an arm with a hand that simulates a human hand, with sensitivity and precision for these tasks,” said Moisés Weber.

I+DONES Forum

The meeting was a showcase for the major innovation projects currently underway, where the main technological challenges of the sector were also discussed, as well as the strategic opportunities that will be generated by the particle accelerator.

It was attended by more than 150 local, regional, and national companies and representatives of the public administration and universities. It has served as a meeting point for all the agents of the national I+D system interested in contributing to the development of innovative technologies useful for IFMIF-DONES and other large scientific facilities.

As stated by Moisés Weber, Deputy Director of the IFMIF-DONES Consortium, one of the pillars of this project is to become the reference center for “big science,”; and the idea is that this type of meeting will be held periodically, increasing the number of companies that directly or indirectly will be installed around the particle accelerator. Since March 16, the construction phase has started, and they are now acquiring the personnel to develop all parts of the project and negotiating with new countries.

In addition, the decision to create a second particle accelerator has been shared due to the convenience of doubling the research capacity of the first one. This decision will increase the investment of the project to one billion euros, and the incorporation of more countries into the project is being sought.

Gerardo Cueva, President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Businessmen of Granada, has declared that the industrial revolution of the area has already begun thanks to the largest scientific project in the history of Spain. “There is no other project in the world like IFMIF-Dones. It is a differentiating project that will mark a before and after in the economy”.

For his part, Erik Fernández, Director of the Spanish Science Industry Association (INEUSTAR), pointed out that “The Spanish science industry is a success story. In Spain, 15 years ago, we did not have the industrial capacity to meet the challenges of large scientific infrastructures. And today, Spain is a reference”, he added.

If you want to know more about our innovation projects, don’t hesitate to contact us!