Manipulator for in-vessel remote maintenance of fusion experimental reactor

The authors have been developing a rail-mounted vehicle system for remote maintenance of in-vessel plasma facing components of fusion experimental reactors. They have designed and fabricated a full-sized model of a divertor handling manipulator, which is a key component of the system. This paper describes the design and experimental results for the manipulator, which has a payload capacity of 1200 kg and can reach all in-vessel regions, including upper and lower divertor plates, that are up to 6 m from the horizontal ports. Using the manipulator, the authors have demonstrated the handling of the divertor plate, which weighs 1200 kg.