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Nuclear industry, Robots, Inspection, Handling, Cutting, Welding,
Abstract
The French Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA, has developed a range of remote controlled manipulators and mobile robots that is designed for inspection and intervention tasks in hostile environments, particularly those associated with nuclear power plants. This paper outlines the activities related to mobile robots, and highlights the need for varied mechanical concepts. Different locomotion principles are required, for example, for the inspection of the interior of a 1 00mm diameter pipe and for the movement of a 100kg payload up and down a stairwell.
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Based at Fontenay-aux-Roses, just south of Paris, the French Atomic Energy Commission's (CEA) main centre of expertise in manipulators and robotics employs about 40 researchers. One of its recent accomplishments is the development of Sherpa, a six-legged robot that is able to climb stairs at a 450 slope and to clear 60cm high walls (see Plate 1). Based on the Odex robot from US company Odetics, the Sherpa robot has been equipped with tactile feet specially developed by the CEA so that it can perform safe locomotion in real life situations. It carried out its first inspections in a nuclear power plant in 1995, proving not only that the hexapod robot could operate in the hostile environment, but also that it could be operated by non-specialist personnel. This is partly due to the software aids that the CEA also developed for the robot, according to Rodolphe Gelin, head of the CEA's control and man-machine interface laboratory.
The sensors incorporated into the foot and leg of Sherpa provide it with the reflex functions necessary for sensing the terrain it is walking on and the ability to adjust the way it sets each foot down on the ground. "Because of these sensors, the operator does not have to continuously look at where and how he is instructing the robot to move. If he had to do this, it would significantly reduce its walking speed", explains Rodolphe Gelin. When the trials took place, the personnel at the nuclear power plant...