CAD supported remote handling systems for fusion reactors

Remote maintenance in fusion reactors poses new challenges that have not been met previously either in other nuclear environment nor in the area of industrial robot application. The high radiation levels caused by neutron radiation and superimposed by tritium contamination are the predominant characteristics. The geometric complexity is almost equally important. These features together call for the application of new techniques that aim at combining the best of two worlds: the servo-manipulator technology and the latest developments in industrial-robot technology. (orig.)