Intense radiation has been too dangerous for Japanese workers inside the troubled reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, but it won’t stop robots, says Tim Trainer, a vice president at iRobot.

iRobot has sent four of its robots to the company that owns Fukushima Dai-ichi. The robots were designed to investigate bombs for the military, and come equipped with cameras and chemical and radiation sensors. One type has a robotic arm that can open doors — unless they’re locked.

The robots are capable of using their cameras to inspect the condition of the containment vessels around the reactors or take samples to check the radiation levels.

Carnegie Mellon University robotics researcher Red Whittaker, who assisted with robotic operations at Chernobyl, expects that a variety of different robots can be used at Fukushima Dai-ichi — for handling dangerous nuclear fuel, for example, or removing radioactive topsoil around the plant.