Hozumi Usui

Development of telerobotic manipulators for reactor dismantling work

This paper describes the amphibious electrical manipulators JARM-10, JART-25, JART-100, and JARM-25 which were developed in the programme of reactor decommissioning technology development carried out by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. They are multi-functional light-duty (10 and 25 daN) and heavy-duty (100 daN) telerobotic manipulators which can be used for reactor dismantling work in hostile environments such as high radiation and underwater environments. Each manipulator can be operated in either a bilateral master-slave, a teach-and-playback, or a program control mode. By combining these modes appropriately, it is possible to perform various complex tasks of remote handling. The usefulness of these telerobotic systems for dismantling nuclear reactors has been demonstrated by the successful application of JARM-25 for remote underwater dismantlement of highly radioactive reactor internals having complex configurations of an experimental nuclear power reactor.

An experimental remote handling system

An experimental robotic remote handling system is described which has been constructed in order to investigate various engineering problems in advanced remote handling such as the man-machine interface, system control and communication. The device consists of a mobile and a control station. The mobile station comprises an electrical manipulator having seven degrees of freedom, a TV camera, a control sub-computer, a servo-control unit, radio transmitters and receivers, batteries, etc., which are mounted on a crawler-type vehicle. The control station is equipped with the master arm of the manipulator, radio transmitters and receivers, a TV monitor, a main control computer and its peripheral devices, etc. The manipulator can be operated in either a master-slave, a playback or a programmed control mode with the assistance of control computers. Communication between the mobile and the control stations is made using optical fibres or a radio link.

Development of Telerobotic Systems for Reactor Decommissioning, (III): Demonstration System

This paper describes the telerobotic system for reactor decommissioning in the scope of engineering demonstration of dismantling radioactive reactor internals of an experimental boiling water power reactor JPDR. The total system consists of a telerobotic manipulator system equipped with a multi-functional amphibious slave manipulator with a load capacity of 25 daN, a chain-driven transport system, and a computer-assisted monitoring and control system. Preceding to the application of the telerobotic system to actual dismantling operation, a mockup test was performed of dismantling the simulated reactor internals of actual-size by the method of underwater plasma arc cutting in order to study the performance of the telerobotic system in a realistic environment. The system was then successfully applied to dismantling the actual reactor internals according to the JPDR decommissioning program.

Development of Telerobotic Systems for Reactor Decommissioning, (I): Prototype Light-Duty System

This paper describes the prototype light-duty telerobotic system constructed as a cold test facility in the program of developing technology for robotic handling systems to be used for decommission...