TESTING THE FEASIBILITY OF A TELEOPERATED ROBOT FOR FAST BURST REACTOR MAINTENANCE

REMOTE ROBOT DEVICES WITH SUPERVISORY HUMAN CONTROL, TELEOPERATORS AND SERVOMANIPULATORS, SHOW GREAT POTENTIAL FOR PERFORMING MAINTENANCETASKS IN HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS. THE PRESENT STUDY IS DESIGNED TO TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF USING A TELEOPERATED ROBOT TO SERVICE AND MAINTAIN A FAST BURST NUCLEAR REACTOR. SUCH A ROBOT HAS THE POTENTIALTO SHARPLY REDUCE HUMAN EXPOSURE TO DANGEROUS RADIATION. CONCEPT FEASIBILITY WILL BE TESTED BY SIMULATING CRITICAL MAINTENANCE TASKS ON AN EXPERIMENTAL WORKBOARD CONTAINING ACTUAL NUCLEAR EQUIPMENT COMPONENTS FROM A FAST BURST NUCLEAR REACTOR. A SAMSIN TELEROBOT SERVOMANIPULATOR WILL BE EMPLOYED TO REMOTELY EXECUTE THESE SIMULATED MAINTENANCE TASKS ON THE EXPERIMENTAL WORKBOARD. NOVICE OPERATORS WILL BE TRAINED TO ACCOMPLISH THESE TASKS WITH THE ROBOT. THEIR LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE WILL BE CAREFULLY MONITORED AND DOCUMENTED. SINCE THE SAMSIN TELEROBOT IS CAPABLE OF VARYING THE AMOUNT OF REFLECTED-FORCE FEEDBACK GIVEN TO THE OPERATORS, THIS PARAMETER WILL BE STUDIED TO DETERMINE OPTIMAL RANGES. IF THE NOVICE OPERATORS CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY TRAINED TO REMOTELY PERFORM THE SIMULATED MAINTENANCE TASKS BY MEANS OF SAMSIN, THEN THE FEASIBILITY OF THE TOTAL SYSTEM, BOTH MACHINE AND PEOPLE, WILL HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED.