Development of a Remote Handling Robot for the Maintenance of an ITER-Like D-Shaped Vessel

Robotic operation is one of the major challenges in the remote maintenance of ITER vacuum vessel (VV) and future fusion reactors as inner operations of Tokamak have to be done by robots due to the internal adverse conditions. This paper introduces a novel remote handling robot (RHR) for the maintenance of ITER-like D-shaped vessel. The modular designed RHR, which is an important part of the remote handling system for ITER, consists of three parts: an omnidirectional transfer vehicle (OTV), a planar articulated arm (PAA), and an articulated teleoperated manipulator (ATM). The task of RHR is to carry processing tools, such as the viewing system, leakage detector, and electric screwdriver, to inspect and maintain the components installed inside the D-shaped vessel. The kinematics of the OTV, as well as the kinematic analyses of the PAA and ATM, is studied in this paper. Because of its special length and heavy payload, the dynamics of the PAA is also investigated through a dynamic simulation system based on robot technology middleware (RTM). The results of the path planning, workspace simulations, and dynamic simulation indicate that the RHR has good mobility together with satisfying kinematic and dynamic performances and can well accomplish its maintenance tasks in the ITER-like D-shaped vessel.