Haptic-Based Isomorphic Teleoperation System for Nuclear Spent Fuel Post-process

During the post-process of nuclear spent fuel, the isomorphic robotic teleoperation is an effective and popular tool for operators to complete special tasks safely. They prefer haptic feedback which enables them to feel the interaction at the slave side. However, in order to avoid radiation damage, motors, force sensors, and all other electronic components of slave manipulator have to be installed outside the nuclear environment, which brings difficulties in the robot structure design and poses challenges to haptic rendering algorithm. To solve all these problems, we propose a general solution of haptic-based teleoperation for users to complete nuclear spent fuel post-process. The manipulator is designed by using gear transmission based on coupled joints so that all electronic components can be mounted in the robot base frame. Special haptic rendering algorithms are developed to render a transparent interface connecting the user at master side and the nuclear environment at the slave side. Especially, the mass of payload on slave manipulator is computed in real time without any force sensors, which helps to render an identical feedback force on master arm. This estimation enables operators to feel what the slave arm is manipulating. Experiments validate our methodologies, and users acknowledge our proposed solution for nuclear spent fuel post-process.