A continuous process for the thermal treatment of a refinery sludge, comprising the following operations: a. On a robotic chassis, a branching cable harness routes multiple power connections and communications interfaces from an onboard computer and multiple power supplies to various locations on the chassis. The elastic portion is elastically deformed when a predetermined card is inserted so as to be pushed out of a card insertion path, but not elastically deformed when a card having a smaller size than the predetermined one is inserted so as to remain on the path.