TASK PLANNING TOOLS ENHANCEMENT AND DE-RISKING LONG-REACH MECHANISMS

Abstract

An articulated manipulator has been proposed and developed for retrieving fuel debris in Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi. This fuel debris retrieval (FDR) manipulator comprises a series of revolute joints and prismatic joints, i.e., realising an over 20 m maximum reach mechanism. Thus, it allows for collecting fuel debris from the post-incident vessel into a transportation carriage. It is a trivial approach to develop bespoke long reach mechanisms for specific missions in the nuclear industry. However, there is a lack of available tools for planning operations allowing for efficient and safe use of robotic systems comprising long reach mechanisms. This work analyses the technical challenges in operating long reach mechanisms, e.g., like the FDR manipulator for nuclear decommissioning, multi-purpose deployment manipulators for maintaining nuclear fusion reactors, and so on. The visions are provided describing the on-going research and development (R&D) pathway, which aims to establish a common pave of planning and de-risking operations using long-reach mechanisms in the nuclear industry. The associated progress of the R&D activities in the scope of LongOps project is reported.