Design and workspace analysis of valve opening device for manipulator in nuclear power plant disaster

The application of nuclear power is more and more extensive, and valve opening operation gains more and more attention as valves are indispensable accessories in nuclear plant. The types of valves used in nuclear plant are huge, the end effector of manipulator should have the ability to exchange tools to accomplish different valve opening tasks. This paper designs a valve opening device for manipulator in nuclear power plant disaster, which adopts universal joint mechanism to realize complaint operation, and it can exchange its end tool and control the size of the tool. This device adopts drive-transmission separation principle to make sure the drives get centralized protection, which can reduce the occupied space and enhance the reliability. Workspace analysis has been done, and compliance performance and workspace analysis model have been established. The workspace analysis is verified through vertical simulation platform. Finally, the compliance function experiment and workspace analysis experiment are done by using six-degree-of-freedom manipulator; the results proved the correctness of the theoretical analysis and simulation analysis.