FOR THE MANUFACTURE AND SUPPLY OF ROBOT SYSTEMS FOR AN AUTOMATED INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE TEST UNIT

Working as part of the EUROfusion consortium, UKAEA's (the Purchaser's) remote handling centre: RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) is currently involved in a project to develop a concept design for the Remote Maintenance (RM) system for DEMO (Demonstration Fusion Power Plant).

Given the large number of maintenance operations that will need to be carried out remotely and the many years between maintenance shutdowns, there is a strong motivation to automate many of the tasks to reduce both timescales and the need to maintain the skill base between shutdowns.

It is therefore necessary to research the application of automated robotics to fusion relevant challenges. Some subject areas that are expected to require development include:

• Localisation of robotic systems deployed to arbitrary reactor locations • Automated maintenance for complex geometries (e.g. pipe nest) • Identification of individual components and recognition of deviations in their condition • Accessing concealed systems • Automated decontamination and swabbing of complex geometries.

To further this development an Automated Inspection and Maintenance Test Unit (AIM-TU) is being developed. This unit will provide researchers with an experimental platform on which to develop solutions for future fusion power plants. It will consist of 2 robotic arms on rails (with supplementary tooling) and a variety of representative plant hardware for them to act upon. The AIM-TU is envisioned as a versatile testing platform which allows significant reconfiguration to conduct different tests.