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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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13 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Radiation Hardened Telerobotic Dismantling System Development Final Report CRADA No. TC-1340-96

This project was a collaborative effort between the University of California, LLNL and RedZone Robotics, Inc. for the development of radiation-hardened telerobotic dismantling systems for use in applications such as nuclear facility remediation, nuclear accident response, and Chemobyltype remediation. The project supported the design, development, fabrication and testing of a Ukrainian robotic systems. The project was completed on time and within budget. All deliverables were completed. The final project deliverables were consistent with the plans developed in the original project with the exception that the fabricated systems remained in Ukraine.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Haptic device for telerobotic surgery

A haptic device for telerobotic surgery, including a base; a linkage system having first and second linkage members coupled to the base; a motor that provides a motor force; a transmission including first and second driving pulleys arranged such that their faces form an angle and their axes form a plane, first and second idler pulleys offset from the plane and arranged between the first and second driving pulleys such that their axes divide the angle between the first and second driving pulleys, and a cable that traverses the first and second driving pulleys and the set of idler pulleys and transfers the motor force to the linkage system; an end effector coupled to distal ends of the first and second linkage members and maneuverable relative to the base; and a controller that modulates the motor force to simulate a body part at a point portion of the end effector.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

3D Reconstruction, Augmented Reality, and Telerobotic Operation - 18297

For nuclear facility decommissioning and waste cleanup, it is necessary to deploy simple and robust robots in remote sites performing precise and dexterous manipulation under teleoperation. To meet the challenge, this paper presents a new remote operation method based on augmented reality for intuitive and efficient teleoperation. The enhanced teleoperation system incorporates three technology components - 3D sensing and reconstruction, augmented reality, and teleoperation. The 3D reconstruction technology utilizes 3D cameras and constructs a 3D geometric model of the environment. Compared to the state-of-the- art technology, the presented 3D reconstruction has greater spatial precision and dynamic object tracking capability, which enhances the precision of manipulation tasks in a dynamic environment. The augmented reality technology entails generation of virtual surfaces of various geometries and dynamic characteristics, as well as consistent perceptual overlay in camera, robot and operator hand control spaces. Teleoperation is demonstrated with a dual-arm robot system operated under Robot Operating System (ROS). (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2018

Telerobotic Control of Dexterous Dual-Arm Robots for D and D Operations - 18622

Robotic systems hold the potential to significantly reduce exposure of workers to hazardous environments such as in the deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) of nuclear facilities. Our goal is to enable an operator with minimal training to easily control a remote dual-arm robot to perform demolition tasks with hand tools. We propose a system that combines semi-autonomous coordination of the robot's arms with an intuitive operator interface based on virtual reality (VR) technology. A limb coordination system enables independent control of the robot arms, as well as coupled motion required to hold and manipulate rigid bodies such as reciprocating saws, angle grinders and crow bars. Using a VR head mounted display and stereo video from the robot for situational awareness and tracked VR hand controllers to command robot arm movement, an operator will be able to walk up to the control console, pick up the controllers, engage the manipulators, fly the grippers, grasp a tool with one or both robot arms and easily move them in unison to perform tasks. We present preliminary results using simulation and a physical dual-arm platform based on the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory's Modular Prosthetic Limb, an anthropomorphic device that provides hyper-dexterous human-like manipulation capabilities. Anticipated benefits of the robotic system for D and D operations include improved situational awareness, increased mission complexity, and reduced operator training time, workload, and task execution times. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2015

Radiation-Hardened Circuitry Using Mask-Programmable Analog Arrays: Report 3

As the recent accident at Fukushima Daiichi so vividly demonstrated, telerobotic technologies capable of withstanding high radiation environments need to be readily available to enable operations, repair, and recovery under severe accident scenarios when human entry is extremely dangerous or not possible. Telerobotic technologies that enable remote operation in high dose rate environments have undergone revolutionary improvement over the past few decades. However, much of this technology cannot be employed in nuclear power environments because of the radiation sensitivity of the electronics and the organic insulator materials currently in use. This is a report of the activities involving Task 3 of the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) 2 project Radiation Hardened Circuitry Using Mask-Programmable Analog Arrays. Evaluation of the performance of the system for both pre- and post-irradiation as well as operation at elevated temperature will be performed. Detailed performance of the system will be documented to ensure the design meets requirements prior to any extended evaluation. A suite of tests will be developed which will allow evaluation before and after irradiation and during temperature. Selection of the radiation exposure facilities will be determined in the early phase of the project. Radiation exposure will consist of total integrated dose (TID) up to 200 kRad or above with several intermediate doses during test. Dose rates will be in various ranges determined by the facility that will be used with a target of 30 kRad/hr. Many samples of the pre-commercial devices to be used will have been tested in previous projects to doses of at least 300 kRad and temperatures up to 125C. The complete systems will therefore be tested for performance at intermediate doses. Extended temperature testing will be performed up to the limit of the commercial sensors. The test suite performed at each test point will consist of operational testing of the three basic measurement functions plus electronic functional testing (power dissipation, voltage offset changes, noise variations, etc.). This suite will be developed as part of this task.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Radiation-Hardened Circuitry Using Mask-Programmable Analog Arrays. Final Report

As the recent accident at Fukushima Daiichi so vividly demonstrated, telerobotic technologies capable of withstanding high radiation environments need to be readily available to enable operations, repair, and recovery under severe accident scenarios where human entry is extremely dangerous or not possible. Telerobotic technologies that enable remote operation in high dose rate environments have undergone revolutionary improvement over the past few decades. However, much of this technology cannot be employed in nuclear power environments due the radiation sensitivity of the electronics and the organic insulator materials currently in use. This is the final report of the activities involving the NEET 2 project Radiation Hardened Circuitry Using Mask-Programmable Analog Arrays. We present a detailed functional block diagram of the proposed data acquisition system, the thought process leading to technical decisions, the implemented system, and the tested results from the systems. This system will be capable of monitoring at least three parameters of importance to nuclear reactor monitoring: temperature, radiation level, and pressure.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

openSE: a Systems Engineering Framework Particularly Suited to Particle Accelerator Studies and Development Projects

Particle accelerator projects share many characteristics with industrial projects. However, experience has shown that best practice of industrial project management is not always well suited to particle accelerator projects. Major differences include the number and complexity of technologies involved, the importance of collaborative work, development phases that can last more than a decade, and the importance of telerobotics and remote handling to address future preventive and corrective maintenance requirements due to induced radioactivity, to cite just a few. The openSE framework it is a systems engineering and project management framework specifically designed for scientific facilities’ systems and equipment studies and development projects. Best practices in project management, in systems and requirements engineering, in telerobotics and remote handling and in radiation safety management were used as sources of inspiration, together with analysis of current practices surveyed at CERN, GSI and ESS.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Implementation of Augmented Teleautonomy on a Hydraulic Manipulator for Nuclear Facility D and D - 19602

Robotic and remote system have been used in nuclear applications to keep the human workers from high radiation environment and enhance task performance. However, applications in the more unstructured nuclear environments present more formidable challenges to robotics and remote systems. In particular, remote operation tasks for nuclear facility D and D (or dismantling) requires dexterous manipulation of heavy objects with simple and rugged robotic equipment. To address such challenge, this paper presents a new teleoperation method of augmented teleautonomy for remote operation of tools for D and D tasks. Rather than imposing complex functionalities on the slave robot, focused innovation is directed to providing effective operator aids in such a way as to draw more performance out of human operators. In this regard, the development entails the implementation of an enhanced telerobotic operation method by incorporating multi-modal augmented reality operator aids and autonomous motion primitives. This paper presents the relevant technology development utilizing a mixed-reality telerobotic test bed, and system integration and demonstration with a rugged, hydraulic slave robot system. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

Performance Evaluation of Augmented Teleoperation of Contact Manipulation Tasks

At Argonne National Laboratory, an enhanced telerobotic concept has been suggested by providing augmented virtual fixtures for precise and dexterous manipulation. The proposed technology incorporated a human-robot interface that can assist personnel on the processes of Deactivation and Decommissioning in sites of high radiation. It has been implemented on a dual-arm robot system, known as Baxter, by integrating the Robotic Operating System (ROS) with 3D sensors and visual-haptic operator interface. However, what remained before its practical utilization is the capability for precisely placing the virtual fixtures. To this end, the objectives involved camera calibration, which required hardware fabrication and setup, as well as modification and implementation of ROS. The goal of this Research and Development is to develop an augmented-reality- based operator interface for human-inclusive, intelligent, and autonomous robotic system for the Deactivation and Decommissioning (D and D) of radioactive sites. The objectives are to develop: Collaborative Robot; Multi-modal Mixed-Reality Human-Robot Interface; Intelligent and Autonomous Behaviors. In order to achieve this, Baxter's Head-Kinect camera and Left-Hand camera need to be calibrated to overlap the real environment with the simulated environment. Camera calibration, which is crucial for precisely placing the virtual fixtures, was successful after running the simulations. The real and simulated environments overlapped, permitting the utilization of augmented teleoperation and the dexterous manipulation of Baxter for D and D applications in nuclear sites. Future steps: Performance evaluation of augmented teleoperation of contact manipulation tasks: Multiple-Camera 3D Reconstruction and Automation. Oculus Interface: Augmented reality and machine learning for enhanced telerobotic operation (Augmented Tele-autonomy): Machine-learning techniques for complex and flexible autonomous robotic behaviors. Interactive remote operation of robotic systems. Mesh cutting with simulation and real robot.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

Augmented reality system for remote operation - 200

This paper presents a new approach to applications of augmented reality techniques for performing telerobotic operations in uncertain and hazardous environments. Particular application examples include remote or partially-automated operation of robotic manipulators in nuclear waste facilities, decommissioning sites, or as a part of incident remediation. Recently advances in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology presents opportunity for enhancing the performance of such remote operations. VR can provide immersive artificial environment for the operator to interact with. As an advanced concept, AR adds to it the blending or artificial contents with real world - users are able to interact with virtual contents in the real world. This work addresses key technological innovations necessary for adopting the VR/AR technologies for the remote operation of hardware robotic systems in real world tasks. To this end, this work focuses on implementation of 'virtual fixtures', which allows intuitive and precise guidance of remote operation, as well as key enhancements in 3D sensing/reconstruction technology. In addition, the implementation details of the integration of the multi-modal augmented reality system to the telerobotic control system are presented. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

Teleoperation of Construction Robots Using Human Interaction: Case Study Examples: Preprint

The integration of advanced teleoperation methods in construction robotics has the potential to enhance productivity and safety in demanding environments. Among different methods, hand gestures have emerged as an intuitive approach, enabling seamless communication between human operators and robotic systems. This study demonstrates the use of hand gestures for controlling a model robotic excavator and a virtual robotic arm in construction applications. Two case study examples are presented. In the first case study, a series of hand gestures are performed to control a model robotic excavator's bucket and arm movements. The second case study focuses on using hand gestures to control a virtual robotic arm to perform a material handling task in a simulated environment. In both cases, the performed hand gestures are all successfully captured and interpreted by the gesture-based teleoperation method to conduct the corresponding tasks, which demonstrates the application of the gesture-based control method for various types of construction robots. Also, the limitations of the gesture-based teleoperation method (e.g., recognition delay, sensitivity to motion outliers) are discussed. Future work will focus on developing a digital twin system to support gesture-based teleoperation for a wider range of construction robots.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗