Development of a Tele-operated Underwater Robotic System for maintaining a light-water type power reactor
The safety and reliability of nuclear power plants is very important. An inspection and maintenance of nuclear power plants should be achieved simultaneously. However, the limitation of a radiation exposure makes it difficult to work in nuclear power plants. Therefore, a tele-operated robotic system is very useful for inspecting and maintaining the components of nuclear power plants because it reduces the level of a radiation exposure to the human operators and it improves the reliability of an operation. A tele-operated underwater robotic system is needed for detecting and removing a loose part in a nuclear reactor vessel. A loose part, which can come from any failed component or an item left during a construction, refueling or maintenance like metallic parts, bolts, nuts and washers, affects the safety of a nuclear power plant. In this paper, an underwater robotic system is developed for inspecting the bottom of a nuclear reactor vessel and a reactor coolant system and also for removing some particles in them. In order to evaluate the performance of the developed underwater robotic system, an experiment was performed in a small swimming tank. In the experiments, the developed robotic system could inspect the state of the tank and remove some particles successfully
URSULA: Design of an Underwater Robot for Nuclear Reactor Vessel Inspection
This paper describes the development of an underwater robotic system that will be used to perform ultrasonic inspections of nuclear reactor vessel weldments. The development effort consists of problem definition, various levels of conceptual design, evolving a final concept, and detailed design. The final concept, now under construction, is a six degree-of-freedom manipulator attached to a moveable base. Suction cups hold the manipulator base to the vessel wall while the arm generates precise scanning paths on the curved vessel surfaces. After completing a scanning area, a suction tool holds the manipulator end-effector to the vessel wall while the base is moved to a new scanning position. This concept minimizes the system complexity by using the same joints for global locomotion as are required for tool scanning. Other important issues such as global positioning, detailed design and the operation plan are also discussed.
The problems of interprofessional healthcare practice in hospitals.
This article outlines the problems of interprofessional practice in the hospital setting. It examines the difficulties associated with competing ideologies and aims, inequalities in power relations, communication and role confusion and overlap. Within the hospital setting such problems often arise although the roots of the problem may go unacknowledged. The ways in which the problems occur in the hospital setting are considered, as is the underlying cause of such problems. Case studies will be used to analyse how the problems arise and ways in which they might be addressed.