China uses intelligent robots to maintain FAST telescope

A photo taken on July 26, 2023 shows the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope in Guizhou province. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- A team of Chinese engineers have designed an intelligent robotic car that can clean, repair and complete replacement work on the country's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, the world's largest single-dish and most sensitive radio telescope.

Maintaining 2,225 laser targets on a giant spherical dish with a receiving area equivalent to 30 football fields is quite a challenge. The telescope's reflective surface is made of one-millimeter thin aluminium plates, making them unable to bear the weight of a normal adult.