IST has been working in ITER Remote Handling related projects since 1996. The involved teams have expertise and are willing to continue working in these challenging areas. For a brief summary of previous activities and expertise, download the presentation.

ITER Remote Handling

The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a joint international research and development project that aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. The participants are: Republic of China, European Union, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russia and United States of America.

During the ITER lifetime all components that provide its basic functions must be inspected, maintained and possibly upgraded. Following the nuclear reactions associated with fusion, the machine becomes active and hands-on inspection and maintenance is not possible. Therefore, the ITER Remote Handling (RH) Maintenance System is a key component, both for scheduled maintenance and unexpected situations. Among this, the Cask and Plug Remote Handling System (CPRHS) is the RH system responsible for the transportation of components during maintenance operations. The CPRHS consists of an unshielded (with respect to gamma radiation) mobile vehicle with dimensions similar to an autobus with a weight of 100 tons (with maximum load), moved by air-cushion, provided with autonomous guidance and docking.

About us: IST, ISR and IPFN

The IST (Instituto Superior Técnico) is the School of Engineering of the Technical University of Lisbon, founded in 1911. Actually, IST has more than 10300 students (BSc, MSc and PhD), where 15% are PhD students and 15% are foreigners. There are 1030 faculty members and several Education Programmes (19 BSc, 24 MSc and 28 PhD) are offered. IST is organized in 8 Departments (Civil Engineering and Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Engineering and Management, Physics and Mathematics) and hosts 33 Research Units and Research Laboratories.

The ISR (Institute for Systems and Robotics) is a Research Laboratory with 120 researchers with PhD and 178 grant holders (PhD and MSC students). The main intervention areas are robotics, computer vision, marine biology and geology, mathematics and sustainable environment.

The IPFN (Instituto de Plamas e Fusão Nuclear) is a Research Laboratory with 90 researchers with PhD and 141 grant holders (PhD and MSC students). The main intervention areas are control and data acquisition, microwave diagnostics, remote handling, plasma theory and modeling.

Researchers from the two above referred Research Laboratories, ISR and IPFN, have been involved in RH activities for ITER since 1996.

Expertise and Skills for Remote Handling in ITER

The IST expertise applicable in the RH maintenance system includes, but it is not limited to:

• Navigation and Localization Algorithms for mobile platforms, i.e., the CPRHS and CTS (Cask Transfer System)
• Path Planning (including manoeuvres) and trajectory following
• Trajectory Evaluation and Simulation
• Navigation and guidance methodologies of mobile platforms
• Obstacle detection and avoidance
• On-board and off-board sensor specification
• Laser Range Scanners or LIDAR systems
• Viewing systems to support navigation and control
• Sensor systems, data acquisition, integration and processing
• Signal processing for environmental perception
• Software simulation
• Programming and software development (CATIA, MATLAB, C/C++)

ITER Remote Handling projects by IST

Since 1996, IST was involved in the following ITER RH related projects:

• Related with the Transfer Cask System
  • ERB 5004 CT 96 0127-NET/96-431 (EFDA) - [1996-1997]: Conceptual study on Flexible Guidance and Docking system for ITER Remote Handling Transport Cask (main contractor: IST).
  • 1998 - Design study for an Air Floating System, by AeroGo, with technical assistance of IST and NNC Ltd (main contractor: AeroGo).
  • ERB 5004 CT97 0088-NET/97-460 (EFDA) - [1998]: Geometric Feasibility of ITER Air Cushion Remote Handling Casks and Extensions for Free Roaming Navigation (main contractor: IST).
  • F4E-2008-GRT-016 - [2009-2010] Activities related to the development of an Air Transfer System prototype and Cask Transfer System Virtual Mockup (main contractor: IST).
  • F4E-GRT-276-01 - [2011]: Optimization of Trajectories for the Cask and Plug Remote Handling System in Tokamak Building and Hot Cell (main contractor: IST).
• Related with the Divertor Remote Handling System
  • EFDA TASK: TW6-TVRWHMAN2 [2008]: DTP2 Gripper and Sliding Table Design (main contractor: VTT - Finland).

Publications, posters and oral presentations

• Motion planning and localization approaches for mobile robot navigation in ITER.
  A. Vale, F. Valente, I. Ribeiro, J. Ferreira and R. Ventura
  Proceedings Robótica'2012, pages 75-80, Guimarães, Portugal, ISBN: 978-972-98603-4-8 (PDF). Best presentation award.
• Mobile Robot Navigation for Remote Handling operations in ITER.
  Alberto Vale, Isabel Ribeiro
  III Workshop de Robótica: Robótica Experimental, 28-29 Noviembre 2011. Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de la Universidad de Sevilla - España (PDF).
• Motion Planning for a Rhombic-Like Vehicle Operating in ITER Scenarios.
  Daniel Fonte.
  MSc Thesis, June 2011, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal,
  supervised by Alberto Vale and Miguel Ayala Botto (PDF). Best master thesis award from the Portuguese Robotics Society in 2011.
• Path Optimization of Rhombic-Like Vehicles: An Approach Based on Rigid Body Dynamic.
  Daniel Fonte, Filipe Valente, Alberto Vale, Isabel Ribeiro.
  Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR 2011), 106-111, Tallinn, Estonia, June 20-23, 2011 (PDF).
• Behavior of Digital and Analog Controller Devices for Manual Driving of Rhombic like Vehicles.
  João Bivar, Alberto Vale.
  Proceedings of the 19th IEEE Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2011), 1065-1070, Corfu, Greece, June 20-23 2011 (PDF).
• Sensor Network and Localization methods for a mobile robot.
  João Ferreira.
  MSc Thesis, December 2010, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal,
  supervised by Alberto Vale and Rodrigo Ventura (PDF). Honorable mention from the Portuguese Robotics Society award in 2010.
• The Remote Handling Systems for ITER.
  I. Ribeiro, C. Damiani, A. Tesini, S. Kakudate, M. Siuko, C. Neri.
  Fusion Engineering and Design, 86 (2011) 471–477, presented as an invited plenary tak in the 26th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT2010), Porto - Portugal, 27 September - 1 October 2010 (PDF).
• ITER Transfer Cask System: status of design, issues and future development.
  C. González, C. Damiani, J-P Friconneau, A. Tesini, I. Ribeiro, A. Vale.
  Fusion Engineering and Design, 85 (2010), 2295-2299, October 2010, presented as a poster in the 9th Int. Symposium on Fusion Nuclear Technology, China, October 2009.
• Optimized Trajectories of the Transfer Cask System in ITER.
  Filipe Valente, Alberto Vale, Daniel Fonte, Isabel Ribeiro.
  Fusion Engineering and Design, 86 (2011) 1967–1970, presented as a poster in the 26th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT2010), Porto - Portugal, 27 September - 1 October 2010 (PDF).
• Optimizing range finder sensor network coverage in Indoor Environment.
  J. Ferreira, A. Vale, R. Ventura.
  7th Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, Italy, September 2010 (PDF).
• A motion planning methodology for rhombic-like vehicles for ITER remote handling operations.
  D. Fonte, F. Valente, A. Vale, I. Ribeiro.
  7th Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, Italy, September 2010 (PDF).
• Challenges of the Transfer Cask System Operation in ITER.
  Ribeiro I., Vale A., Ruibanys P., Queral V..
  Highlighting Portuguese Science - Associate Laboratories' Review, July, 2010, pp.70-71 (PDF).
• From CAD to a ITER Tokamak Building Maquette: Support to Remote Handling Operations.
  Pedro Diogo and Alberto Vale.
  CIENCIA 2010, 4-7 July 2010, Lisbon Congress Center, Lisboa, Portugal.
• Geometric Feasibility of the ITER Air Cushion Remote Handling Casks and Extensions to Free Roaming Navigation.
  Isabel Ribeiro, Pedro Lima, Pedro Aparício.
  Technical Report, RT-402-98, Institute for Systems and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico, June 1998 (PDF).
• Active Docking of a Transport Cask Vehicle Subject to 6 Degrees of Freedom Misalignments.
  Isabel Ribeiro, Pedro Lima, Pedro Aparício, Renato Ferreira.
  Proceedings do 17th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering, San Diego, USA, October 1997, pp. 973-976 (PDF).
• Conceptual Study on Flexible Guidance and Navigation for ITER Remote Handling Transport Casks.
  Isabel Ribeiro, Pedro Lima, Pedro Aparício, Renato Ferreira.
  Proceedings do 17th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering, San Diego, USA, October 1997, pp. 969-972 (PDF).
• Conceptual Study on Flexible Guidance and Navigation for ITER Remote Handling Transport Casks.
  Isabel Ribeiro, Pedro Lima, Pedro Aparício, Renato Ferreira.
  Technical Report, RT-401-97, Institute for Systems and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico, April 1997.

Opportunities

The proposals must be submitted by e-mail with the Curriculum Vitae and a cover letter with the corresponding ref. number to rh-jobs@ipfn.ist.utl.pt.

Contacts

Prof. Isabel Ribeiro Institute for Systems and Robotics Instituto Superior Técnico Av. Rovisco Pais, 1 1049-001 Lisboa – PORTUGAL Phone: +351 218 418 059 Fax: +351 218 418 291 mir@isr.ist.utl.pt Web page

Dr. Alberto Vale Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear Instituto Superior Técnico Av. Rovisco Pais, 1 1049-001 Lisboa – PORTUGAL Phone: +351 218 419 098 Fax: +351 218 417 819 alberto.vale@ipfn.ist.utl.pt Web page