Teleroboties can be used in nuclear powerplants forinspection, monitoring, and maintenance in order to improve workersafety, to reduce shutdown time, and to reduce operation costs. Improved vehicle maneuverability over current designs will berequired to allow access to many potential work sites. this willremain true even with the next generation of nuclear plant designs. This project addresses one important aspect of improvedmaneuverability for wheeled vehicles: the ability to move in anydirection, including sideways, in cramped quarters. Improvedmobility will be particularly important for larger maintenancevehicles (as compared to smaller vehicles for monitoring andinspection). The concept uses a novel kinematic design with fouractuators to allow improved mobility. Phase I is addressinganalysis, experimental verification, and design. Phase II willallow construction of a prototype for test and evaluation byutilities and by designers of power plants. Phase III will becommercial exploitation of the concept in the next generation ofpower plants.Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications as described by the awardee:Telerobotics vehicles with improved mobility can beused for monitoring, inspection, and maintenance of nuclearpowerplants. This will reduce expensive shutdowns and will reduceradiation exposure for maintenance workers. The same kinematicdesigns can be used for other robotic vehicles for commercialservice and manufacturing applications.
