Design considerations for teleoperation systems operating in gas-tight argon cells

In the nuclear industry, mechanical engineers spend a significant portion of their time designing equipment such as manipulators, bogies, mechanical grippers, and so on. Some customized designs can be considered as standard mechanical equipment in this area, although it is not unusual to find that an existing design cannot simply be copied from one project to another. Varied performance requirements can dictate that redesign, often quite extensive redesign, is required. However, if something similar has been done before, engineers could use that as a starting point for the new project. In this regard, this study presents several guidelines inspired by previous design knowledge for similar development cases. Moreover, this study presents more detailed suggestions such as design guidelines for an argon-based hot cell atmosphere and design experience for a large-scale practical hot cell facility. Design considerations and case studies dealt with in this study are dedicated to teleoperation manipulators that are used at a large-scale argon cell facility for pyroprocess integrated inactive demonstration (PRIDE), at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. In particular, for case studies to support the suggested recommendations, a fabricated telemanipulator system for PRIDE is introduced, and several kinds of experimental results associated with it are presented.