Meet 'SAPPHIRE,' The High-Voltage Safety Patrol Robot

Short for 'Semi-Autonomous Pulsed Power Hazard Inspection Robotic Explorer,' SAPPHIRE was built by a team at University of California, Davis to safely patrol a dangerous high-voltage area for the National Ignition Facility.

“There’s a lot wrapped into going that extra mile of actually building something real,” said Le Galloudec  , power conditioning system engineer and NIF’s Pulsed Power Group leader. “It’s not just classwork, it’s not just theory, it’s not just a simulation, it’s a real device. The details really matter.”