A System for Telerobotic Control of Servicing Tasks in a Nuclear Steam Generator

Abstract

Many nuclear servicing tasks fall into the tool insertion class. These tasks have principally been accomplished through force and torque feedback paradigms; the peg in the hole problem is the classic example. However, many manipulation problems, such as servicing tasks, require automated movement and/or alignment before contact is made. Torque and force feedback are insufficient for providing information to locate the goal, to align the manipulator, and to prevent undesired collisions. In this work, vision and range sensors are appended to manipulation to enable high accuracy tool insertion,and are used to construct a highly accurate model of the space with which the manipulator interacts. Direct viewing of this model provides a superior man-machine interface; the operator has immediate and intuitive visual confirmation of the manipulator position and configuration. Once developed, the technical ideas were successfully applied to a current problem of interest: the telerobotic inspection of nuclear steam generators. A complete telerobotic system was developed, built and tested and performed a docking task commonly seen in inspection.