The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is already a technological marvel in its own right.  The 27km tunnel is the biggest particle accelerator in the world and is located 175 meters beneath the French-Swiss border.

It’s believed to be the largest single machine anywhere in the world, and is undoubtedly the most complex experimental facility anywhere on the planet.

Suffice to say, monitoring and maintaining such a vast and complex piece of equipment is far from easy, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the smart folks at CERN have come up with a machine to monitor the machine.

Meet TIM

The robot, called TIM (or Train Inspection Monorail if you prefer), is an inspection monorail that operates autonomously as it undertakes pre-defined missions around the LHC.

It performs a range of measurements and inspections throughout the tunnel, including of its structure, temperature, communication bandwidth and even oxygen percentage.

It also comes equipped with a special radioprotective probe that is used for providing a radiation map of the LHC, whilst also providing visual and infrared imaging of the tunnel.

There are currently two devices operating in the tunnel, travelling at up to 6km/h.  The device was developed to provide eyes and ears within the tunnel, as humans access is often restricted.

You can learn more about TIM in a recently published paper, or see it in action in the video below.  The paper outlines the design, development and operation of the equipment including preparation of the infrastructure. Key features of the trains are described along with future developments and intervention scenarios