Robot-Assisted Glovebox Teleoperation for Nuclear Industry

Abstract

The nuclear industry has some of the most extreme environments in the world, with radiation levels and extremely harsh conditions restraining human access to many facilities. One method for enabling minimal human exposure to hazards under these conditions is through the use of gloveboxes that are sealed volumes with controlled access for performing handling. While gloveboxes allow operators to perform complex handling tasks, they put operators at considerable risk from breaking the confinement and, historically, serious examples including punctured gloves leading to lifetime doses have occurred. To date, robotic systems have had relatively little impact on the industry, even though it is clear that they offer major opportunities for improving productivity and significantly reducing risks to human health. This work presents the challenges of robotic and AI solutions for nuclear gloveboxes, and introduces a step forward for bringing cutting-edge technology to gloveboxes. The problem statement and challenges are highlighted and then an integrated demonstrator is proposed for robotic handling in nuclear gloveboxes for nuclear material handling. The proposed approach spans from tele-manipulation to shared autonomy, computer vision solutions for robotic manipulation to machine learning solutions for condition monitoring.

Towards reuse and recycling of lithium-ion batteries: tele-robotics for disassembly of electric vehicle batteries

“…Telemanipulation has been commonly employed in the nuclear industry for delicate handling of wastes that present a radiation hazard for human personnel. For example, the use of gloveboxes is examined in Tokatli et al (2021) in the context of telerobotics as a means of reducing radiation exposure risks to human personnel. Another study conducted real world experiments of a user performing nuclear decommissioning task via a unilateral teleoperated robotic system ( Mizuno et al, 2023 ).…”

How to define the correct guidelines for enhanced telepresence and task embodiment in remote palpation.

“…In such a challenging environment, many tasks cannot be executed in person by operators without a great health hazard or potential danger. In NPP, teleoperation can be used for a wide range of tasks: from remotely cleaning the reactor's walls [63] to safely performing maintenance [64] and handling radioactive waste [65]. The last 2 examples are particularly relevant, representing high dexterity handling tasks in which objects need to be visually inspected and correctly placed.…”

Assessing tele-manipulation systems using task performance for glovebox operations

“…The remote robot was fixed to a pedestal outside the glovebox and fed into the glovebox through the existing glove port, as seen in Figure 2B. The Kinova Gen3 robot has been used to develop a robotic glovebox (Tokatli et al, 2021), as they are of low cost and of ideal size to fit through the entry port of most gloveboxes.…”