Nikola Petkov Huapeng Wu Roger Powell
The DEMO remote maintenance system (RMS) will have a significant role in keeping the power plant operational, and therefore, would have a large impact on its economic feasibility. The identification of impending mechanical failures of the RMS equipment during active maintenance operations is crucial if unscheduled and or unplanned recovery and resc…
PublishedKeelan Keogh Steven Craig Stewart Hockley Paul Talbot Chris Lamb
As part of the development work performed under the ITER Robotic Test Facility (IRTF) the development and substantiation of the maintenance strategy for the Vacuum Vessel Pressure Suppression System (VVPSS) must be investigated. The VVPSS is a key safety aspect of the vacuum vessel of ITER. It ensures after a coolant leak, and subsequent pressure e…
Preprint PublishedEmil Jonasson Jonathan Boeuf Stephen Kyberd Robert Skilton Paul Amayo Guy Burroughes Steve Collins
The containment vessel of the Joint European Torus is a huge, complicated assembly with a myriad of components, all of which are important for plasma operation. As a research device, JET has been operated over many years and has been extensively rebuilt. During each maintenance shutdown, inspections and measurements of the Vacuum Vessel are carri…
Preprint PublishedL. Pangione R. Skilton R. Powell
An extensive knowledge of a system’s failures is crucial for identifying areas where the reliability of the system can benefit from improvements, as well as informing the design of new systems. Moreover, relationships between faults and failures can be used to enhance the maintenance of the system. In this paper we present a taxonomy of failure …
Preprint PublishedGuy Burroughes
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a multi-disciplinary research facility which will be the world’s most powerful pulsed neutron source. A critical component of ESS will be a facility for handling radioactive waste and preparing it for safe disposal; this facility must operate for at least 40 years. Safe disposal of ESS waste requires…
Preprint PublishedDoganay Sirintuna Yusuf Aydin Ozan Caldiran Ozan Tokatli Volkan Patoglu Cagatay Basdogan
In today’s automation driven manufacturing environments, emerging technologies like cobots (collaborative robots) and augmented reality interfaces can help integrating humans into the production workflow to benefit from their adaptability and cognitive skills. In such settings, humans are expected to work with robots side by side and physicall…
Preprint PublishedT. Tremethick S. Kirk K. Keogh A. O’Hare E. Harford B. Quirk
As part of the European Research Roadmap to the Realisation of Fusion Energy, the DEMO reactor aims to show the feasibility of a fusion power plant. Due to the loss of revenue created by downtime and the potential for a breakdown to render a reactor inoperable, maintenance is “mission critical” for a power plant. The harsh environment of a fusi…
Preprint PublishedGarry Staunton
One of the primary benefits from automated/autonomous vehicles (AV) is the promise of increased road safety through reductions in the number of driver error-induced accidents, where an often-cited statistic is that around 90% of all motor vehicle crashes are caused by human error. The flip-side of this is that one of the greatest barriers to the wi…
Preprint PublishedDavid J Trousdale Garry M Staunton
Whilst Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) hold the promise of relegating the driver to passenger by transforming vehicles into intelligent platforms able to ‘read’ and ‘sense’ their environment. A corollary of this is that not only will these vehicles transform how people get from A-to-B, they will be a major source of information whic…
Preprint PublishedStuart Budden Ane Barturen Victor Agudo Jonathan Keep Paul Shaughnessy Gregory Keech Antony Loving
RACE has been developing a concept design for the remote maintenance system for the EUROfusion DEMO powerplant. Within the DEMO tokamak, tritium breeding blankets will require periodic replacement which is currently designed to utilize the upper vertical ports at the top of the vacuum vessel. This operation will be challenging due to the scale of t…
Preprint Published