Remote Maintenance Design Guide for Compact Processing Units
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Robotics and Process Systems (RPSD) personnel have extensive experience working with remotely operated and maintained systems. These systems require expert knowledge in teleoperation, human factors, telerobotics, and other robotic devices so that remote equipment may be manipulated, operated, serviced, surveyed, and moved about in a hazardous environment. The RPSD staff has a wealth of experience in this area, including knowledge in the broad topics of human factors, modular electronics, modular mechanical systems, hardware design, and specialized tooling. Examples of projects that illustrate and highlight RPSD's unique experience in remote systems design and application include the following: (1) design of a remote shear and remote dissolver systems in support of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) fuel recycling research and nuclear power missions; (2) building remotely operated mobile systems for metrology and characterizing hazardous facilities in support of remote operations within those facilities; (3) construction of modular robotic arms, including the Laboratory Telerobotic Manipulator, which was designed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Advanced ServoManipulator, which was designed for the DOE; (4) design of remotely operated laboratories, including chemical analysis and biochemical processing laboratories; (5) construction of remote systems for environmental clean up and characterization, including underwater, buried waste, underground storage tank (UST) and decontamination and dismantlement (D&D) applications. Remote maintenance has played a significant role in fuel reprocessing because of combined chemical and radiological contamination. Furthermore, remote maintenance is expected to play a strong role in future waste remediation. The compact processing units (CPUs) being designed for use in underground waste storage tank remediation are examples of improvements in systems processing radiological contamination. A CPU is a minimally sized operating assemblage of processing equipment that performs a specified function. This technical report details remote maintenance guidelines for a CPU system being built at ORNL to ensure that sludge sent to a waste repository is in the appropriate form for transport through the storage facility pipe lines. The CPU conditions the sludge by (a) reducing the size of particulates that do not meet piping system requirements and (b) preparing the sludge for transport. The CPU has filters, grinders, sensors, valves, and pipes that must be remotely maintained. In the near future, the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is expected to use many CPUs with remote maintenance characteristics similar to those of the ORNL CPU. These guidelines will aid the designers of those systems especially when design encompasses the often-used approach of surveying commercially available hardware and making modifications appropriate for remote operations. This is a cost-effective approach for design of systems for remote maintenance and is the approach that will be used in design of CPU's and remote maintenance equipment.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 816185
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM-2000/124; TRN: US200320%%333
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 13 Jul 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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