Raising radioactive dust is something to avoid. Chernobyl zone can be dry especially in summer month. In addition, dog is uniquely positioned for indoors explorations of inside of sarcophagus - not only it is super dusty, but it is much harder to fly the drone indoors.

> dog is uniquely positioned for indoors explorations of inside of sarcophagus

Is that possible with such radiation levels? Strong radiation kills most electronics in the blink of an eye.

1) because you want to show off the nightmare dog in a practical scenario to attract funding

2) radio communication doesn’t work in high radiation environments

It's a product already for sale so I guess 1) is close, but more to attract sales. 2) There is no problems with radio communications anywhere but in the core of a running reactor (also dependant on the wavelength if you want to use it almost in the core).

They're selling a toy for the wealthy but know that market is limited so they arrange for stunts like this to convince people that it's good for something other than impressing Jeff Bezos' friends at parties.

If 2) was a problem it would be even bigger for the dog.

I went to a talk by one of the head researchers from Bristol. They usually use fixed wing drones (https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/porta...) and then any detailed areas can go over with multi rotors . I’m not quite sure what the application of the ground robot is, there isn’t much publication out there yet. However, I would imagine it could allow for identification of individual radioactive objects, without throwing up radioactive dust, and for radioactive mapping indoors.

According to TFA, they did use aerial drones as well.

1) The dog is perfectly suited to perform spectrometry in the woods of the Red Forest. 2) Dust. Almost the only major source of danger in the Zone to this day.

Otherwise, drones are fine.