Robotics in Ionizing Radiation Environments: Vulnerabilities, Hardening, and Future Directions

This review provides a comprehensive assessment of current advances in deploying robotic systems in ionizing‐radiation environments. It examines major radiation types and their effects on electronic, sensing, actuation, power, and communication subsystems, with particular attention to total ionizing dose, displacement damage, and single‐event effects. The review synthesizes reported component‐level vulnerabilities, radiation‐hardening strategies, shielding approaches, fault‐tolerant architectures, and emerging intelligent methods for monitoring and adaptation. Experimentally reported component‐level radiation effects are compared where data are available, while author‐developed models and illustrative simulations are explicitly distinguished from experimentally validated results. Key research gaps include standardized testing protocols, limited radiation‐robotics datasets, mixed‐field qualification, and the need for system‐level validation linking component degradation to mission performance. This work aims to help engineers and researchers in developing the next generation of radiation‐tolerant robotic systems.