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To review the capabilities, features and uses of a robotic simulation package.

Describes some applications within the nuclear industry. Gives an overview of the latest version of the software, and a detailed description of the procedure for modelling the robot and its workspace, defining its movements and converting the plan into reality. Also describes some applications in other industries.

The software enables engineers to plan robotic or manipulator work ensuring its feasibility, efficiency and safety, and has applications in a wide range of industries. It models the interactions of multiple robots and integrates with other aspects of the manufacturing process such as product flow and resource utilisation. For many standard robots, it can produce executable programs, with considerable time saving.

A general overview of some very useful and powerful software, of interest to engineers in a variety of industries.

Graham Engineering, a UK company specialising in the manufacture of large complex components for high‐tech industries has pioneered the application of 3D laser trimming and welding of stainless steel and other difficult‐to‐process pressings and fabrications. It uses a Prima Optima 3D laser profiler, one of the largest built by the Italian company, for this work and examples are described from the nuclear, aerospace, domestic heating and telecommunications industries. One of the largest is a nuclear containment vessel manufactured in 6 mm stainless steel, requiring over 18 m of laser welded seams produced in a single pass compared with a root and four capping runs required when TIG welded. Quality and strength are also superior to TIG. Other components produced in the Prima machine include mild steel pressings for an aerospace customer, satellite dishes for a telecommunications company and stainless steel hot water cylinders marketed by Graham Engineering company.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of snake‐arm robots to conduct inspection and repair operations within nuclear power plants. The systems that have been developed and deployed are described. Operational experience and results are provided. Inspection and repair of aging plant is increasingly important to continue to generate electricity safely from high value assets.

Snake‐arm robots are hyper‐redundant, multi‐jointed, wire rope drive manipulators that are able to snake between obstructions and gain access to areas that are inaccessible to people.

The benefits to nuclear operators arising from the deployment of snake arm robots include significant dose saving, increased quality and quantity of acquired data and the ability to enable repairs in highly confined spaces.

The two case studies are first‐of‐kind applications and indicate a direction of travel for the coming decades, both in the nuclear sector and far beyond.

The purpose of this paper is to review the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) in Tokyo, Japan 2011, with emphasis on the new trend of the Japanese robot industry.

This paper is based on in‐depth interviews with exhibitors and the reporter's insight into the Japanese robot industry.

A big change is observed in the direction of the Japanese industrial robotics in an attempt to cope with the increasing demand from the emerging nations and to create new business in domestic Japan.

This is the first report describing the change in the Japanese robot industry after the great earthquake and tsunami.

This paper aims to improve the scene sense of a virtual scene, the welding model of a virtual reality system of riser automatic equipment was constructed using Unity3D and UG software, which mainly included a welding car, welding guide rail, welding power supply, virtual camera and other equipment and the model was rendered.

The human-computer interaction page and simulation test of the system was produced using the user interface GUI system for creating a human-computer interaction scene. The operator could capture the welding status of the physical equipment accurately and in real-time so the virtual reality technology was very suitable for the remote monitoring operation integrated with the welding system.

Human-computer interaction design and collision detection were realized. In addition, the system simulation experiment was accomplished. With the continuous improvement and development of virtual reality technology real-time virtual simulation and monitoring, technology will become the main development trend.

Based on virtual reality, the monitoring system can capture the operation status of physical welding equipment in real-time and accurately, which is very suitable for remote monitoring operation integrated with the welding system and also conducive to improving the monitoring level of the welding process.

This technology is time-saving and money-saving, for the operators do not have to be in a real welding environment and therefore they can get away from dangerous places. Consequently, it can avoid unnecessary injuries and problems.

This technology can replace people to enter the dangerous and extreme environment to carry out welding operation, so it becomes the most effective means of nuclear power plant maintenance, space structure construction and marine engineering construction. In addition, it is time-saving and money-saving.

With the rapid development of virtual reality technology in recent years, it is a new research direction to apply virtual reality technology to the remote welding operation. This technology is different from the traditional way of welding for the operators can stay away from the welding scene especially some dangerous places.

Ricardo Hitec Ltd is pioneering the development of sensor‐controlled robotic systems suitable for use in a variety of environments including hazardous areas typical of the oil exploration, nuclear, and process industries, or industrial applications where physical limitations prevent operator access.

The purpose of this paper is to build up a parallel robot for assembling, machining and repairing of the vacuum vessel of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER).

The process of assembling and machining of the vacuum vessel need a special robot. By studying the structure of the vacuum vessel, a novel parallel robot is built, which has ten degrees of freedom driven by water hydraulic cylinders and electrical servo motors. Kinematic models for the redundant degree robot have been defined. A prototype has been built. Experiments for machine cutting and laser welding were carried out.

The parallel robot is capable of holding all necessary machining tools and welding end‐effectors in all positions accurately and stably inside the vacuum vessel sector. The kinematic models appeared to be complex because of the redundant structure of the robot, and an optimization algorithm ensuring the maximum stiffness during the robot motion helps to find the solution in the trajectory planning. The entire design and testing process of the robot appeared to be a very complex task due to the high specialization of the manufacturing technology needed in the ITER reactor, while the results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed solutions quite well.

Offers not only a device but also a methodology for the assembling and repairing of ITER by means of a parallel robot.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the uses of robots in the nuclear power industry, with an emphasis on newer developments and applications.

Following an introduction to the nuclear industry, this paper considers robotic applications in two areas: test and inspection and decommissioning. A range of products, applications and case histories are discussed.

It is shown that robots are used widely for test and inspection and decommissioning tasks. The majority are highly specialised and are frequently produced by specialist nuclear engineering companies. The main robotic test and inspection techniques are visual inspection, ultrasonics and eddy current and the use of robots reflects both the need to minimise operator exposure to radiation and the frequent difficulties in accessing critical components such as pressure vessel welds and steam generator tubes. Key decommissioning uses include handling and size reduction of contaminated materials, cutting and demolition.

This paper provides details of inspection and decommissioning robots in the nuclear power industry.

The paper describes a pipe repair conducted in August 2004 using two types of snake‐arm robot. The pipe was located 5 m below the reactor core of Ringhals 1 nuclear reactor.

The two types of robot worked co‐operatively to replace a section of critical pipe. The 23‐degree of freedom arm snaked around obstructing pipes to positions cameras in a humanly unreachable location in order to give the ideal view of the work site. The more substantial second arm used 13 degrees of freedom to deliver fixtures, cutting tools, gas shields, inspection equipment and also conducted both tack welding and continuous welding.

The leaking pipe was repaired manually during the 2004 outage. The robots successfully completed the externally assessed Factory Acceptance Tests which involved copying the complete procedure on a purpose built mock‐up. The robots are now on standby for 2005 and beyond.

The successful completion of this extremely difficult task indicates that snake‐arm robots are now a viable solution to a variety of complex access tasks in all industries including aerospace, pharmaceuticals, the miltary sector and nuclear industries.

The paper describes a procedure that has never been attempted before using two completely new designs of redundant snake‐arm robot.