-
UKAEA-RACE-PR(22)022022
In robotic teleoperation, the knowledge of the state of the remote environment in real-time is a paramount. Advances in the development of highly accurate 3D cameras able to provide high quality point clouds appear to be a feasible solution for generating live, up-to-date virtual environments. Unfortunately, the exceptional accuracy and high densit…
-
UKAEA-RACE-PR(22)042022
The nuclear industry has some of the most extreme environments in the world, with radiation levels and extremely harsh conditions restraining human access to many facilities. One method for enabling minimal human exposure to hazards under these conditions is through the use of gloveboxes which are sealed volumes with controlled access for perfor…
-
UKAEA-RACE-PR(23)022021
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…
-
UKAEA-RACE-CP(23)022021
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 …
-
UKAEA-RACE-CP(23)012021
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…
-
UKAEA-RACE-CP(21)042021
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…
-
UKAEA-RACE-CP(21)022021
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…
-
UKAEA-RACE-PR(21)042021
Present inspection techniques in place at the Joint European Torus (JET), as well as some of those planned for ITER make use of robotically deployed inspection systems, which typically collect data for offline analysis. This can be a slow, laborious process with subjective or error-prone results. There are significant benefits to be gained through …
-
UKAEA-RACE-PR(23)012020
In the last decades, several approaches have been presented to accomplish tasks with a robot or autonomous systems in a glovebox, nevertheless, in nuclear facilities, risky operations are still executed by humans that guarantee a high manipulation capability and dexterity. Inside the gloveboxes, robotic devices have to operate in cluttered envir…
-
UKAEA-CCFE-PR(21)202020
In the worlds of nuclear energy, mining, petrochemical processing, and sub-sea, robots are being used for an increasing number and range of tasks. This is resulting in ever more complex robotics installations being deployed, maintained, and extended over long periods of time. Additionally, the unstructured, experimental, or unknown operational cond…
Showing 21 - 30 of 37 UKAEA Paper Results