Sellafield - Remote Handling Case Study
2Pages

Nuclear decommissioning case study: Sellafield Snake-arm robot capability demonstration Sellafield requires a dextrous remote handling capability to conduct safe, cost efficient exploration and characterisation of nuclear facilities. Snake-arm robots are general purpose delivery tools for confined space working in hazardous areas. DEFINE Objectives To demonstrate snake-arm robots in an unstructured, unknown environment performing: The Sellafield site contains a wide range of ponds, vaults and cells, often containing unknown radiation risks. Manual entry is not appropriate. A mock-up was built representing a dry processing cell containing pipework and vessels. Access to the cell was via 150mm diameter, 1m long, horizontal and vertical penetrations. Visual inspection Remote handling Radiological inspection Sampling loose material Water-jetting DESIGN Two snake-arms and a range of tools Two 2.5m long, 100mm diameter, self-supporting snake-arm robots were constructed. One snakearm robot was equipped with a water-jetting head. The second was equipped with a three degree-of-freedom wrist-andgripper with integrated camera and lights. Radiological probe Swabbing tool The generic gripper interface allowed a range of tools to be deployed. All tool services were routed inside the snake-arm. Water-jetting head Gripper with integrated camera Deployment Zoom camera with lights The Rail&Rotate linear introduction axis allows the snake-arm to nosefollow into the cell, using either horizontal or vertical penetrations. Snaking between pipes to swab a pipe: vertical deployment Operation Snake-arm nose-following allows the operator to fly the tool using the tip mounted cameras, with the arm following. This intuitive control mode allows the operator to snake between pipes and into vessels. All tasks were completed in under 4 hours. Arm exchange took less than 15 minutes. The time to change between vertical and horizontal deployment was 45 minutes. Inspection inside a vessel inside the cell: vertical deployment Water jetting: horizontal deployment Sampling inside a pipe inside a vessel inside the cell: vertical deployment The trials demonstrated the versatility, rapid deployment and intuitive operation of snake-arm technology. The slender, lightweight arm is a safe, cost effective, generic deployment method for a range of tools in hazardous, confined

OC Robotics OC Robotics are world leaders in confined space automation - our snake-arm robots are designed specifically for remote handling operations within confined or hazardous spaces. The Explorer catalogue The Explorer range of snake-arm robots are general purpose tools which occupy the mid-range for diameter, reach, payload, curvature and precision. The catalogue shows all of the available configurations and can be downloaded from our website. Bespoke solutions Confined spaces are nearly all different. The work to be completed may involve a wide range of tools. OC Robotics delivers...