Design and experimental research of a novel piezoelectric driving track robot for Tokamak vacuum chamber maintenance

The stability, motion accuracy, and controllability of current Tokamak maintenance robots are difficult to guarantee. Based on piezoelectric drive technology, a novel piezoelectric driving track robot (PDTR) is proposed in this study. Through static analysis, the mechanical characteristics of the structural scheme meet the design requirements are verified. The performance evaluation experiments of the PDTR are conducted. Firstly, the connection and locking performance between the track joints in a conventional environment are tested, as well as the laying and folding speeds of the PDTR. Secondly, experimental researches are conducted on the connecting and locking mechanism of the PDTR in high vacuum and high temperature environments, the results show that when the vacuum degree is 10-4 Pa and the temperature is 120 degrees C, the maximum velocities are 7.14 mm/s and 1.04 mm/s, respectively. The experimental researches confirm the feasibility of the PDTR for application in the maintenance of Tokamak vacuum chamber.