RICA: A Tracked Robot for Sampling and Radiological Characterization in the Nuclear Field

Abstract

Throughout the lifetime of nuclear facilities, radiological inspections are of vital importance, as controlling the radiological state of these facilities is necessary to ensure that their operations remain safe. These inspections are equally important during dismantling and decommissioning (D&D). Inspections of facilities that have contained radionuclides, particularly high activity cells, and very high activity cells are the first step when planning to carry out maintenance and D&D operations. Therefore, the development of investigation robots for hostile environments is a strategic approach in the nuclear field in order to meet these needs. The CEA and CYBERIA have worked together to develop the RICA robot (Robot d'Inspection pour Cellules Aveugles, or blind cell inspection robot), which can locate and measure the activity of radioactive sources. Since 2007, RICA is one of the strategic apparatuses that the CEA has been using for dismantling operations in its nuclear facilities. This small tracked robot was developed to offer a good level of modularity in terms of the onboard equipment able to carry out inspection and sampling missions in extremely hostile environments. To be able to do this, it can be operated either with a complete unit of radiological measurement tools or with a remote-handling arm. The measurement unit consists of a gamma camera, a gamma spectrometer, and a dose rate detector. This innovative radiological measurement unit enables in situ activity quantification and the collection of all the information necessary to interpret the radiological spectra. On the other hand, when equipped with a remote-handling arm, the unit can be used to carry out samplings, which will then be analyzed in a laboratory. This paper first presents the RICA robot, giving its main technical features. The innovative radiological measurement unit is described, explaining each of its bricks. The gamma irradiator tests that qualified the robot's functioning under irradiation are described, and the dose resistance results are analyzed. Lastly, examples of tasks in which RICA has been used in CEA nuclear facilities illustrate the robot's modularity. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Improved Dynamic Optimization of PSPF-Based Sources Estimation in Local Multi-Modal Radiation Field

“…where I (•) denotes the cumulative radiation model [shown in (2)] with multiple estimated centroids C −s and p r,s , and • depicts the floor operator. Additionally, the function poi (•) represents the Poisson observation model, whereby actual count k is regarded as total dose measurements m(S i ) and expected count λ denotes the estimated result in current iteration, as shown in (4).…”

“…Owing to the irreversible damage of ionizing radiation to human body, autonomous robots have gradually become substitutions for intervention tasks in facility decommission and nuclear accidents [1]- [4]. Among these intervention demands, a promising topic is efficient environment inspection and rapid localization for radioactive materials [5], [6], but the identification of multi-modal radiation field has not been further investigated and resolved.…”

Radiation Tolerance Testing Methodology of Robotic Manipulator Prior to Nuclear Waste Handling

“…Many irradiation tests of electronic components examine individual integrated circuits or chips (for example, the work of Katz and Some, 2003 ; Nagatani et al, 2011 ; Ducros et al, 2017 ), whereas our trial sought to test the whole robotic arm, to better simulate what might happen in a real industrial environment containing highly radioactive material. A methodology is suggested for designing experiments to assess the system performance of an industrial robot whilst the robot is carrying out a dynamic task.…”

Design and Function Realization of Nuclear Power Inspection Robot System

“…1). Robot SURBOT (1987), developed by Remotec, USA, HAZBOT (1990), developed by the California Institute of Technology, Pioneer (1998), developed by NASA, and the Energy Bureau, in 2011, the PackBOT developed by iROBOT of Japan, the TALON developed by QinetiQ, and the Quince developed by Chiba Institute of Technology and International Rescue System Research Institute of Northeastern University, Japan, which are used for the detection and monitoring of nuclear power operations facilities, 3,4 the prevention of early warning, Nuclear power environmental detection, 5 and so on. These nuclear power robots are analyzed from the functional configuration, which are equipped with visual remote monitoring equipment, walking mechanism, multi-joint manipulator, or sampling operation tools.…”