Development and Analysis of a Long Reach Robot for EAST Vacuum Vessel Inspection

Experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) is a fusion engineering test reactor, it can provide help for acquiring the key technology of fusion energy power. It's important to obtain the information of the in-vessel components and detect abnormal events timely in EAST. However, it's difficult to inspect the whole vacuum vessel and plasma facing components under radiation, ultra-high vacuum and temperature constraints. A long reach robot system developed for EAST inspection is introduced. The long reach robot penetrate into the EAST chamber using the size-limited hole with process tool installed on it. The robot, which is designed with the consideration of remote handling, small weight and easy control, has a long reach multi-link structure with the characteristics of numerous degrees of freedoms, high flexibility and large workspace. The robot could be part of the remote handling system for EAST and has the potential ability to be used for other fusion devices. The conceptual design and mechanical structure of the robot are described. The kinematic analyses, including kinematic model and workspace investigation, are discussed. The results indicate that the robot shows appropriate kinematic performance and can meet the requirements of the inspection process. The prototype of the robot has been built and the further validation will be carry on in the future.