Wall-Climbing Mobile Robot for Inspecting DEMO Vacuum Vessel

Qin, Guodong; Li, Changyang; Wu, Huapeng; Ji, Aihong

doi:10.3390/app12189260

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…4, a snake robot introduced in [13] and [14] could be used as the end effector of the multipurpose in-cell robot, which is introduced previously. Also, the wall-climbing mobile robot for inspecting DEMO VVs could be used here as an inspection robot in the narrow space [15]. Another gecko inspection robot shown in Fig.…”

Section: B Inspection Robotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Development on the Remote Maintenance Tools and Strategy of the Port Closure Plate in DEMO

Li,

Wu,

Eskelinen

et al. 2024

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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In the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) and the demonstration power plant (DEMO), there are three kinds of ports: the upper port (UP), the equatorial port (EP), and the lower port (LP). The applications and structures of the upper, equatorial, and LPs are different between those of ITER and DEMO. In DEMO, the breeding blankets (BBs) could be removed from the UP, a multipurpose deployer is transported and installed in the EP, and the divertor is maintained through the LP. It is noted that during remote maintenance (RM), the operating environment must be safe for the operators. To achieve this goal, reliable RM tools and RM strategies must be designed and developed. One of the containment barriers of the tokamak is the port closure plates (PCPs), which weighs between 1.3 and 25 tons depends on its location, and the PCPs need to be removed during the maintenance process. Therefore, in this article, the current designs of the PCPs are first presented. Then, the RM tools in both commercial and research stages are studied for the RM of the PCPs. Next, the RM strategies are designed and developed for each port. Finally, suggestions for the development of different RM tools are proposed.

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Section: B Inspection Robotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Development on the Remote Maintenance Tools and Strategy of the Port Closure Plate in DEMO

Li,

Wu,

Eskelinen

et al. 2024

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

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“…Commonly used adhesion methods in WCR including magnetic [10][11][12], electrostatic [13,14], grippers [15,16], bio-inspired [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], as well as negative pressure [9,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. One commonly used method is magnetic adhesion, employing permanent magnets [10], electromagnets [11], or a hybrid adhesion with permanent and electromagnets [12] to adhere to metallic surfaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impeller-based wall-climbing robot [28] can achieve a speed of 5 m s −1 with a payload capacity of up to 2.2 kg on a vertical surface. However, this mechanism has high energy consumption (25 A, 600 W) [29] and requires to carry more power supply [30], which greatly increases the size and weight of the robot. Other WCRs using negative pressure adhesion are equipped with passive and active suction cups, which can be incorporated with legged [9,36] and tracked [32,39] mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CREST: A low energy consumption wall climbing robot with passive impactive negative pressure adhesion

Zhu

2024

Eng. Res. Express

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Wall-climbing robot (WCR) displays a great potential in a wide range of tasks that are challenging or dangerous for human presence. Adhesion capacity and control mechanism are the key factors for climbing robots, as they directly affect the robot’s durability and power consumption in different climbing tasks. However, many WCRs adopting negative pressure adhesion rely on extra mechanism such as air compressor to achieve engagement and disengagement while overlooking the dimension and energy-consumption level of the robot. The high power consumption significantly reduces the robot’s operation duration and efficiency. To address this issue, we proposed a passive negative pressure adhesion mechanism together with an energy-efficient disengagement mechanism using the servo-string-plug sealing system that eliminates the requirement of air compressor or vacuum pump. We developed a compact bipedal climbing prototype named CREST (Climbing Robot with Efficient Suction Technology) that validated this design. Experiment showed that the CREST can perform climbing tasks in different environments including vertical surfaces and can transit between perpendicular planes with low power consumptions. It had a payload capacity up to 0.7 kg when attaching using one foot, the efficient payload capacity achieved 40 times the mass of the foot.

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“…The robot Ibex, which uses wheeled movement, could achieve a maximum payload of 2.5 kg and is suitable for inspecting concrete structures or aircraft skins (Parween et al , 2021). The designed wheeled mobile negative pressure adsorption wall-climbing robot (Qin et al , 2022), could carry a lightweight wireless ultrasonic probe and a visual camera with a total mass of 1 kg, is used for inspection inside and outside the vacuum vessel of the demonstration fusion power plant. The total effective mass of the robot, including itself, is 4 kg.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A heavy-load wall-climbing robot for bridge concrete structures inspection

Lyu,

Wang,

et al. 2024

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a wall-climbing robot platform for heavy-load with negative pressure adsorption, which could be equipped with a six-degree of freedom (DOF) collaborative robot (Cobot) and detection device for inspecting the overwater part of concrete bridge towers/piers for large bridges. Design/methodology/approach By analyzing the shortcomings of existing wall-climbing robots in detecting concrete structures, a wall-climbing mobile manipulator (WCMM), which could be compatible with various detection devices, is proposed for detecting the concrete towers/piers of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The factors affecting the load capacity are obtained by analyzing the antislip and antioverturning conditions of the wall-climbing robot platform on the wall surface. Design strategies for each part of the structure of the wall-climbing robot are provided based on the influencing factors. By deriving the equivalent adsorption force equation, analyzed the influencing factors of equivalent adsorption force and provided schemes that could enhance the load capacity of the wall-climbing robot. Findings The adsorption test verifies the maximum negative pressure that the fan module could provide to the adsorption chamber. The load capacity test verifies it is feasible to achieve the expected bearing requirements of the wall-climbing robot. The motion tests prove that the developed climbing robot vehicle could move freely on the surface of the concrete structure after being equipped with a six-DOF Cobot. Practical implications The development of the heavy-load wall-climbing robot enables the Cobot to be installed and equipped on the wall-climbing robot, forming the WCMM, making them compatible with carrying various devices and expanding the application of the wall-climbing robot. Originality/value A heavy-load wall-climbing robot using negative pressure adsorption has been developed. The wall-climbing robot platform could carry a six-DOF Cobot, making it compatible with various detection devices for the inspection of concrete structures of large bridges. The WCMM could be expanded to detect the concretes with similar structures. The research and development process of the heavy-load wall-climbing robot could inspire the design of other negative-pressure wall-climbing robots.

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Wall-Climbing Mobile Robot for Inspecting DEMO Vacuum Vessel

Cited by 4 publications

References 39 publications

Design and Development on the Remote Maintenance Tools and Strategy of the Port Closure Plate in DEMO

Design and Development on the Remote Maintenance Tools and Strategy of the Port Closure Plate in DEMO

CREST: A low energy consumption wall climbing robot with passive impactive negative pressure adhesion

A heavy-load wall-climbing robot for bridge concrete structures inspection

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