Teleoperated parallel climbing robots in nuclear installations

Abstract

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to present new robotic structures that can be suitable for inspection, maintenance and dismantling tasks in nuclear facilities. Design/methodology/approach -In the first part, two types of parallel robots capable to climb through structures are presented. The kinematics of the proposed platforms is reviewed, with emphasis on the analysis of the singularities. Next section shows the control architecture and the hardware setup of the developed system. Finally, the prototypes developed are showed and some conclusions are obtained. Findings -The slave robot is a parallel structure with the ability to climb over structures and with a very high load capacity. The master device is a parallel device with special characteristics that makes easier the teleoperation of the parallel slave robot. Originality/value -The paper presents a teleoperation system based on parallel platform with 6 degrees of freedom to overcome the classical difficulties of teleoperation in nuclear facilities.

Nonlinear Discontinuous Dynamics Averaging and PWM-Based Sliding Control of Solenoid-Valve Pneumatic Actuators

“…Telerobotic systems have been developed for applications ranging from surgery to micromanipulation to space exploration [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6].…”

On the Design of Mobile Parallel Robots for Large Workspace Applications

“…Generated by the supporting limbs, the DOFs of the body can be used to position the swinging limb. Instead of actuating each limb independently, sharing actuators for positioning each limb will help to reduce the total number of actuators [10,11].…”

Locomotion approach of REMORA: A reonfigurable mobile robot for manufacturing Applications

“…However, few of them have been used to solve industrial problems due to the complexity of the control and the lack of reliability: the conventional legged robot requires lots of degrees of freedom. In the literatures, several attempts were carried out to use the mobility of PKMs for locomotion purposes [8], [9]. Such approach helps to build legged robots with reduced degree of freedom, however most of these research lines are away from the manufacturing purposes.…”