Control system for reactor vessel inspection manipulator

Abstract

In this paper a system for control and 3D visualization of a manipulator for weld inspection of nuclear reactor vessels is described. Based on client-server TCP/IP software architecture, the presented control system enables an operator to perform the entire inspection procedure remotely over a network, avoiding exposure to dangerous radiation which is commonly present in nuclear reactor environments. The developed graphical user interface provides all necessary tools needed for planning robot scan trajectories, their verification on a virtual 3D model and execution on a remote robot. In addition, the weld inspection process can be observed in parallel on a virtual robot and reactor vessel model and on live video streams captured by two special cameras mounted on the robot.