D. Butters E.T. Jonasson V. Pawar
Supervising and controlling remote robot systems currently requires many specialised operators to have knowledge of the internal state of the system in addition to the environment. For applications such as remote maintenance of future nuclear fusion reactors, the number of robots (and hence supervisors) required to maintain or decommission a fac…
Preprint PublishedD. McGarrigle E. Flynn C. Kennedy A. Loving S. Budden
This paper reports on a study of the existing or proposed maintenance arm systems with similar functions and structure to that of the proposed DEMO Multi-Purpose Deployer (MPD).The current MPD design iteration consists of a boom deployment system that is ~30m long and can support a payload of ~1000kg, while still being able to access the DEMO va…
Preprint PublishedIpek Caliskanelli Matthew Goodliffe Craig Whiffin Michail Xymitoulias Edward Whittaker Swapnil Verma Robert Skilton
Maintenance and inspection systems for future fusion power plants (e.g., STEP and DEMO) are expected to require the integration of hundreds of systems from multiple suppliers, with lifetime expectancies of several decades, where requirements evolve over time and obsolescence management is required. There are significant challenges associated wit…
PreprintHarun Tugal Salvador Pacheco-Gutierrez Myles Verdon Ipek Caliskanelli Alfie Sargent Alice Cryer Ronan Kelly Alexandros Plianos Andika Yudha Qasim Kapasi Robert Skilton
Robotic systems that enable the operators to remotely manipulate delicate materials with high dexterity and sufficient force feedback will pave the path for improvements of the safe maintenance and decommissioning processes within the nuclear industry. Training the operators, however, for challenging conditions (e.g., low visibility, restricted …
Preprint PublishedS. Pacheco-Gutierrez I. Caliskanelli R. Skilton
Nuclear power, conceived during the second world war as a mass destruction technology, has now become the primer technology aiming at low-carbon emission source of energy. Furthermore, the joining of the once divided West and East has led to a worldwide research ground that involves not only physics or chemistry but many other engineering fields…
PublishedM. E. Sayed J. O. Roberts K. Donaldson S. T. Mahon F. Iqbal B. Li S. F. Aixela G. Mastorakis E. T. Jonasson M. P. Nemitz S. Bernardini A. A. Stokes
Operations in extreme and hostile environments such as offshore oil and gas, nuclear decommissioning, nuclear facilities maintenance, deep mining, space exploration, and subsea applications require the execution of sophisticated tasks. In nuclear environments, robotic systems have advanced significantly over the past years but still suffer from ta…
Preprint PublishedS. Kirk K. Keogh
The maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear reactors requires the rapid cutting and welding of thick-walled pipework, to which laser processing is highly suited. However, the large size and stand-off of current laser heads precludes their use in space constrained areas and incorporation into in-bore processing tools. To address this, novel minia…
Preprint PublishedEmil T. Jonasson Jonathan Beouf Stephen Kyberd Robert Skilton
Just like most industrial or scientific installations, future fusion reactors will require more or less frequent maintenance. The expected environmental conditions, as well as the necessity of carrying out many maintenance tasks in parallel in result in remote robotic maintenance becoming a necessity in order to minimize the maintenance shutdown du…
Preprint PublishedMarco Visca Arthur Bouton Roger Powell Yang Gao Saber Fallah
Driving energy consumption plays a major role in mobile robots navigating challenging environments, especially if they are left to operate unattended under limited on-board power. This paper reports on first results of an energy-aware path planner, which can provide estimates of the driving energy consumption and energy recovery of a robot traversi…
PreprintEmil T. Jonasson Luis Ramos Pinto Alberto Vale Robert Skilton
Sensor technologies will play a key role in the success of Remote Maintenance (RM) systems for future fusion reactors such as ITER and DEMO. Understanding their limitations and suitability for use in a fusion context is crucial to the operation and maintenance of these reactors. In this paper, we evaluate three key types of sensor which are of p…
Preprint Published