Remote handling control with graphical man-machine interface for NET and JET

For fusion plants fully remote maintenance concepts are favoured for costs as well as for safety and availability reasons. The remote work in a geometrical complex environment with kinematical redundant manipulators calls for computer support. Hence a control system concept was worked out, which organizes a close, problem-suited cooperation of man and machine (computer), based on mutual surveillance and mutual help to get a maximum in safety of work and speed of operation. The system provides two modes of operation. In the automatic mode, the operator initiates and supervises autonomously working, pre-programmed subtasks (e.g. transportation with the boom). Interruptions and corrections by the operator are possible. In the manual mode of operation, the operator is working directly in the motion control loop, using different masters for various end-effectors. In this mode the operator has the full control, but he may be supported by so called handling support modules like for example coordinate transformations, resolved motion algorithms, collision control, or special positioning tools. The central module of the control system is a geometric/kinematic real-time simulator. This simulator serves for planning and off-line programming of maintenance sequences, and, in the execution phase, for synthetic scene presentation. In the latter case the simulator is controlled by the joint angle signals of the manipulator. It provides the operator with views not obtainable by TV-systems because of the restrictive possibilities of camera positioning, supplementing standard TV-systems which are indispensable for manually done contact work. A first implementation of a real-time simulator and its integration in an overall control system was done for JET. This system simulates the in-vessel handling with the JET-boom and its various end-effectors. An important problem in the area of simulation is the generation of model data. An interactive software package for deriving the geometry and kinematics of the manipulator and environment out of a standard CAD-database was developed. (author). 10 refs, 8 figs