Commissariat a L'energie Atomique

Jean-Claude Germond

Jean Vertut

Paul Marchal

Daniel Francois

Gilles Clement

Michel Petit

Theodore Le Mouee

A tool holder robot makes it possible to carry out various interventions within a closed enclosure having an access opening. It comprises a cylindrical ferrule fixed to the opening, a cylindrical shaft mounted in rotary manner in the ferrule, a guide rail fixed to the inner wall of the shaft, in which a first arm is slidingly mounted, a second arm pivotably mounted to the free end of the first arm and a tool holder carriage slidingly mounted on the second arm. The second arm is in two parts and can rotate about its longitudinal axis. Application to the inspection and maintainance, without human intervention, of water boxes of nuclear power station steam generators.

Tool holder robot for intervening in an enclosure having an access

A master-slave manipulator which penetrates an enclosure wall through an opening fitted with a mounting plate has a slave arm and master arm pivoted respectively to each end of a pivotally mounted central cylindrical body and constituted by one or more articulated cylindrical segments in end-to-end relation. A tool or tong unit is fitted at the slave end while a control handle and balance weight are fitted at the master end. The segments of the master arm are in an inverted homothetic relationship with those of the slave arm with respect to the point of intersection of the axis of the central body with the pivotal mounting axis and are in a ratio equal to -k while the weights of the homothetic segments are in a ratio of 1/k. The movements transmitted by the master arm to the slave arm ensure that, at each instant, the angle made by the two homothetic segments of the slave arm are equal and opposite, the dimensions of one segment of the master arm being equal to k times those of the corresponding slave segment.

Balanced articulated manipulator

The movement of rotation of each element of the manipulator arm about the shoulder, elbow and wrist pins is controlled by a motor and a cable consisting of two oppositely-acting lengths by means of a pulley-block which carries at least two lengths, two pairs of pulley-blocks being located within a barrel unit. The length of cable which emerges from each pulley-block is passed over a return pulley carried by the shoulder pin and guided within a stationary manipulator body in a direction parallel to the axis of the barrel unit, each emergent length of cable being actuated by one of the motors mounted on the manipulator body.

Cable-operated power manipulator

The control arm for a remotely operated power manipulator comprises a system for carrying out a number of movements and position detectors for each movement. The number of possible movements of the arm is equal to the number of possible movements of the manipulator and motion-control operations can be interrupted at will. Means are provided on at least one portion of the control arm for interlockiing it with respect to another portion of the arm independently of the other movements as long as the position of the manipulator and of the arm have not been brought into complete concordance and for releasing the interlock when complete concordance is achieved.

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Paris, France

Jean-Claude Germond