Development of a Remote Handling Intervention to Plug and Unplug an Electrical Connector of a Vacuum Pump at CERN

Teleoperation, or Remote Handling (RH), enables humans to interact with hazardous and difficult-to-access environments from a safe distance by using robots to perform a range of demanding tasks in their place. A major challenge in RH is plugging and unplugging connectors, which requires careful positioning and force control to avoid damaging the components. This paper focuses on plugging and unplugging peripheral devices to larger structures, specifically vacuum pump to collimators in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Our research addresses this challenge by designing and developing a prototype tool to connect the vacuum pump to the collimator. To aid operators' awareness of the remote environment, we also present a computer vision algorithm, implemented in the CERN Robotic Mixed Reality Interface, to track connector locations after they are identified by operators. To validate the concepts and designs developed, several tests were performed in the LHC mockup laboratory environment at CERN's robot lab using the Future Circular Collider (FCC) robotic arm. Analysis of the experimental results shows that effective execution using our RH methods adds standardization to the intervention planning, enabling quick, reliable operation of a highly dexterous task and ensuring safety for the operator and robotic platform.