We designed and fabricated robots with various mechanisms to solve the problems set in the Creative Robot Contest for Decommissioning. Robots with various mechanisms were designed and manufactured to solve the problems set by the Creative Robot Contest for Decommissioning. More specifically, a mechanism that can climb up the stairs robustly was realized by attaching claws to the crawlers to solve the problem of climbing up a steep staircase while carrying a heavy load. For the task of retrieving simulated fuel debris from a high location, we developed a mechanism to raise and lower the robot and a mechanism to retrieve simulated fuel debris without fail. Consequently, we realized the idea of robot technology required for decommissioning work and training human resources involved in decommissioning work.
Abstract² We proposed the downsizing of an optical tactile sensor using an elastic body. This sensor can be used as a tactile sensor of robots. An elastic body, the layers of light, and a camera are used for this sensor. The layers of light use modification of an elastic body as a contour line. A camera captures the contour line. And forces are detected from the obtained picture. In previous research, modification of an elastic body was conventionally approximated by a cubic polynomial. Therefore, two layers of light were used. In this research, one layer of light was used by approximating modification of an elastic body by a second-order polynomial. The result of the evaluation experiment showed that this research was able to detect force in equivalent accuracy as compared with the algorithm using approximation by a cubic polynomial.
In this study, a robot was created to compete in the “7th Decommissioning Creative Robot Contest. The “Decommissioning Creative Robot Contest” is a robot contest in which the fields and tasks are set based on the assumption of decommissioning work at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The theme of this year’s competition is 3D decontamination of a highly contaminated area inside a nuclear reactor building. To solve the competition problem, we propose a robot for decommissioning work equipped with “an undercarriage mechanism that can cope with slopes and steps”, “a decontamination mechanism with two types of rotation trajectories”, and “a lifting mechanism with a high deformation rate. The undercarriage mechanism uses a four-wheel drive with infinite orbit to cope with slopes and steps. The decontamination mechanism uses two different types of orbits for decontamination: a circular rotating orbit and a longitudinal rotating orbit for rotation. For the lifting mechanism, three pantograph mechanisms were used. This study realized a control and mechanism to overcome steps and slopes, a deployment mechanism to high places, and a mechanism with two types of orbits to carefully decontaminate a large area.
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