NAME : SALIH BULUT

FAC NO : 283212241
Maintenance of Industrial Robots
Implementation and Maintenance of Industrial Robots
Assist. Prof. V. Pashov

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Maintenance is the process that preserves or restores a desired state
of a system or facility. The maintenance process includes three major
activities: inspection, planned maintenance, and disturbance handling
(where disturbances are unplanned system states). Inspection is the
activity in which information about state is monitored to allow prediction or
early detection of disturbances. Planned maintenance is the activity in
which elements of the system are modified or replaced according to a predetermined schedule, with the aim of avoiding or reducing the frequency
of disturbances. Disturbance handling is the activity in which elements of
the system are modified or replaced to restore the desired state, following
a disturbance.
Maintenance is a task that has some important differences from
tasks commonly selected for industrial robots. First, maintenance often
requires access to environments that are more dynamic and less
predictable than is the case for many robotic applications. Second, tasks
may be less predictable in maintenance, both in terms of the nature of
tasks and the frequency of maintenance or latency between tasks. Finally,
the cost benefits of robotic maintenance may be different from that of
other robotic applications. In general, robots typically pay for themselves
over their entire operational life; however, robots used in maintenance,
particularly in the nuclear industry, may pay for themselves in a single
application. This is particularly true if robots allow a facility to avoid
shutdown and to continue operating even during maintenance.

APPLICATION EXAMPLES AND TECHNIQUES

Robots, whether teleoperated, under supervisory control, or
autonomous, have been used in a variety of applications in maintenance
and repair. The following subsections describe many of these systems,
focusing primarily on applications for which working robot prototypes have
been developed.

Nuclear Industry
In the nuclear industry, teleoperators have been well-utilized in the
maintenance role for more than 4 decades. Several features of
maintenance make it a good application for teleoperators in this arena.
First is the low frequency of the operation, which calls for a generalpurpose system capable of doing an array of maintenance tasks. Second,
maintenance and repair require high levels of dexterity. Third, the

complexity of these tasks may be unpredictable because of the uncertain

impact of a failure. For these reasons, the choice for this role is often
between a human and a teleoperator. Thus, when the environment is
hazardous, a teleoperator is usually the best selection. If humans in
protective clothing can perform the same job, the benefits of having
teleoperators continuously at the work site need to be weighed against the
cost of suiting up and transporting humans to and from the
work site. While humans are likely to be able to complete tasks more
quickly than teleoperators, using teleoperators can: (1) shorten mean time
to repair by reducing the response time to failures, (2) reduce health risks,
(3) improve safety, and (4) improve availability by allowing maintenance
to take place during operations, instead of halting operations.
As an example of the importance of maintenance for nuclear
industry robotics, the proceedings of the 1995 American Nuclear Society
topical meeting on robotics and remote handling included 124 papers,
nearly a quarter of which were devoted to some aspect of maintenance.
The 1997 meeting included 150 papers, where more than 40% dealt with
some aspect of maintenance. Furthermore, if one considers environmental
recovery operations as a form of maintenance, then a much larger
proportion of papers at both meetings were maintenance-related.
Vertut & Coiffet (1985) listed the following applications of
teleoperated robots in nuclear maintenance: (1) operation and
maintenance of industrial nuclear facilities and laboratories, (2)
maintenance in nuclear reactors, (3) decommissioning and dismantling
nuclear facilities, and (4) emergency intervention. Our exploration of
robotics for nuclear-related maintenance will follow these categories.
Operation and maintenance of industrial nuclear facilities and
laboratories. Guidelines for applying teleoperators in the remote
maintenance role exist (e.g., Burgess et al., 1988). Unfortunately, there is
an historic tendency to ignore the importance of designing for robotic
maintenance and lessons learned by past experiences with remote
maintenance (Vertut & Coiffet, 1985). Nuclear facilities do not necessarily
need to be designed for robotic operations for robots to be successfully
deployed within them. However, designing a facility to accommodate
robotic maintenance greatly improves efficiency. Chesser (1988) reports
on an extensive maintenance demonstration carried out using a
teleoperator to dismantle and re-assemble components built for robotic
maintenance. Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel requires a complex
chemical process plant. To demonstrate the ability of a state-of-the-art
teleoperator to replace equipment modules in such a plant, Chesser
conducted a demonstration disassembly and re-assembly of a prototype
chemical process rack using the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's
Advanced Servomanipulator (ASM). Figure 1 shows the ASM, which is also
remotely maintainable because of its modular design. Using standard tools

(impact wrenches, ratchet wrenches, and a torque wrench), ASM operators

were able to dismantle the rack, including tubing jumpers, instruments,
motors, tanks, etc. As an adjunct to this demonstration, another
teleoperator was used to disassemble and re-assemble the ASM to show
its remote maintainability.
Particle accelerators are another type of nuclear facility sometimes
maintained robotically. The CERN laboratory seems to have produced the
largest body of experience in remote maintenance (Horne et al.; 1991).
That program features integrated use of a variety of remote devices,
including inspection and surveillance systems, dexterous manipulators,
and mobile robots. The CERN application has some characteristics
common to nuclear applications: (1) diverse array of maintenance tasks,
(2) unpredictability of tasks and occurrences, (3) environment dangerous
for humans, and (4) large facility size and, hence, a need for mobility. The
evolving response to these factors depends on flexibility and versatility of
robotic systems and their users. There is also a trend toward providing
computer assistance during teleoperation to improve overall performance
(Horne et al., 1991).
Maintenance in nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors are even less
likely to be designed for robotic maintenance than industrial nuclear
facilities, thus leading to the frequent requirement for innovative
approaches to gaining access to trouble spots. This, along with limitations
on size imposed by reactor designs and the resulting long lead times
necessary for purpose-built robots has limited the use of robots in this
arena in the past (Glass et al., 1996). However, increasingly stringent
limits on worker exposure to ionizing radiation and exposure reductions
possible with robotic maintenance may increase robot use in the future
(Lovett, 1991). For experimental fusion reactors, a remote maintenance
philosophy seems to be an important part of design; see, for example,
MacDonald et al. (1991).

Figure 1. Advanced servomanipulator (ASM), designed for

maintaining chemical process racks and itself remotely maintainable.

Several programs are addressing the difficulties of maintenance in

nuclear reactors. For example, a preliminary analysis of tasks required in
nuclear power plant maintenance and robot requirements for meeting
these needs has been completed (Tsukune et al., 1994). A modular
approach has been proposed to reduce costs incurred by customized robot
designs (Glass et al., 1996) and problems in handling tools and fixtures
designed solely for human use have been addressed by the development
of more dexterous robot grippers (Ali, Puffer, & Roman, 1994).
Decommissioning and Dismantling Nuclear Facilities. In the United
States, this topic is currently receiving much attention within the
Department of Energy community. At the time of this writing, the first
completely robotic decommissioning effort is being conducted at the
Argonne National Laboratory. Two systems --- a pair of dexterous
manipulator arms and a vehicle with a manipulator --- are being used to
dismantle the CP-5 (Chicago Pile number 5) reactor. Development work in
support of this effort is described in Noakes, Haley, & Willis (1997).
Hazardous waste site remediation is a related topic that is also the target
of development work within the DOE. Underground storage tank
remediation using robotics is currently being done by the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (Randolph et al., 1997) and Pacific Northwest

Laboratories (Kiebel, Carteret, and Niebuhr, 1997). Figure 2 is a

photograph of robotic devices deployed to retrieve waste at the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory. Detailed task analyses of underground storage tank
remediation illustrate the complexity of this task (Draper, 1993a,b). In this
application, the unpredictability inherent in the mission makes it a prime
candidate for the application of teleoperated robots, with automation
generally limited to providing assistance to the operator under specific
conditions. As an example of the unpredictability in this arena, a quarry
remediation conducted at Oak Ridge started with an estimate that
approximately 2500 objects would be retrieved; in fact, more than 17,000
items were removed from the quarry by robotic systems.
Emergency intervention. The most famous case of emergency
intervention in the nuclear arena in the United States is the accident at
Three Mile Island (TMI-2). Merchant & Tarpinian (1985) and Bengal (1985)
provide overviews of robotic programs developed for recovery operations
at TMI-2. The accident is illustrative of principles of emergency
intervention by robots. First, the event was unpredictable. Robotic systems
were not available to perform reconnaissance or inspection for some time
afterward. Robots on-site could have significantly reduced post-accident
personnel exposure (Merchant & Tarpinian, 1985). Second, the accident
created an environment very hostile to people
and, at the same time, hostile to autonomous robots. Obstructions
routinely present in buildings designed for human access are already
difficult for robots to negotiate; the effects of the accident were to render
access more difficult by introducing even less structured and unknown
obstructions. Lesser-known interventions have also been carried
out, and Chester (1985) briefly describes some of these.

Figure 2. Robotic devices deployed to retrieve waste at Oak Ridge

National Laboratory.

Highways
In the developed world, highways are a critical component of the
transportation network. The volume of traffic on the roadways has been
steadily increasing for many years as society becomes more and more
mobile. However, the funding to maintain these roadways has not been
keeping pace with the traffic volume. The result is deteriorating roadways
that cannot be adequately maintained. Conventional techniques to road
repair lead to traffic congestion, delays, and dangers for the workers and
the motorists. Robotic solutions to highway maintenance applications are
attractive due to their potential for increasing the safety of the highway
worker, reducing delays in traffic flow, increasing productivity, reducing
labor costs, and increasing quality of the repairs.
Application areas to which robotics can be applied in this area
include (Ravani and West, 1991): highway integrity management (crack
sealing, pothole repair) highway marking management (pavement marker
replacement, paint re-striping) highway debris management (litter bag
pickup, on road refuse collection, hazardous spill cleanup, snow removal)
highway signing management (sign and guide marker washing, roadway
advisory) highway landscaping management (vegetation control,
irrigation control) highway work zone management (automatic warning
system, lightweight movable barriers, automatic cone placement and
retrieval)
Although relatively few implementations in highway maintenance
and repair have been attempted, some successful prototypes have been
developed (Zhou and West, 1991). The California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans), together with the University of California at
Davis (UC Davis) are developing a number of prototypes for highway
maintenance under the Automated Highway Maintenance Technology
(AHMT) program. Efforts are underway to develop systems for
crack sealing, placement of raised highway pavement markers, paint
striping, retrieving bagged garbage, pavement distress data collection,
and cone dispensing. One result of this effort is a robotic system, ACSM,
for automatic crack sealing along roadways (Winters et al., 1994). Shown
in Figure 3, this machine senses, prepares, and seals cracks and joints
along the highway. Sensing of cracks along the entire width of a lane is
performed using two-line scan cameras at the front of the vehicle. Sealing
operations occur at the rear of the vehicle using an inverted, slidemounted SCARA robot. A laser range finder at the tooling verifies the
presence of the cracks and provides guidance for the sealing operation.
The vehicle is able to perform this operation moving at about 1.6 to 3.2

km/hr (1-2 miles per hour). Other crack sealing prototypes have been
developed at Carnegie Mellon University (Hendrickson et al., 1991) and at
the University of Texas at Austin (Haas, 1996).
Earlier prototypes for highway maintenance date back to the 1980s
(Skibniewski and Hendrickson, 1990). Researchers at Tyndall AFB
developed a rapid runway repair (RRR) telerobotic system for repairing
craters in runways (Nease, 1991). The objective of this work was to safely
restore pavement surfaces after enemy attack to ensure subsequent
future successful aircraft operations. The system was based upon a John
Deere multipurpose excavator enhanced for telerobotic operation. The
system used a 4 DOF joystick system using position and rate control, plus
force feedback for human remote control. The resulting machine could dig,
scrape, compact, break pavement, and change tools under
preprogrammed, onboard control. Carnegie Mellon University also
developed a robotic excavator prototype, called REX, which used
topography and a computer-generated map of buried objects to generate
and execute appropriate trajectories for the mission. The system used an
elbow-type manipulator coupled with a master arm for manipulator setup
and error recovery.
Automated pavement distress data collection vehicles have also
been developed (Zhou and West, 1991). The vehicle built by Komatsu
Ltd., of Japan, uses scanning lasers to examine a road surfaces condition,
measuring information regarding crack formation, wheel rutting, and
longitudinal unevenness. The vehicle can travel at speeds up to 60km/hr,
evaluating roads up to 4 meters wide with ruts and potholes up to 0.25
meters deep.

Figure 3. Automated Crack Sealing Machine developed by UC Davis.

The French Petroleum Studies Company developed an automatic

cone dispenser that can dispense and remove up to two rows of warning
cones, for a total of 240 cones. The system operates at about 15 km/hr.
The Technique Special de Securite Company developed a mobile lane
separator that can place and remove concrete road marker blocks at
speeds up to 30 km/hr. Systems for automatic grading have been
developed by Spectra-Physics of Dayton, Ohio, and by Agtek Co. of
California. These systems use laser guides to controls the height of the
grading blades, thus relieving the human operator from the need to
perform manual positioning and control of the blades.
Railways
The railroad industry has recognized the economic benefits of
automation, which has lead to the development of a number of robotic
solutions to maintenance and repair
applications in the industry. The railway maintenance shops are the most
common location of robots, which perform activities such as welding,
grinding, cleaning, and painting (Martland, 1987). A Toronto Transit
Commission project led to the design of an automated system for cleaning
the undersides of subway cars (Wiercienski and Leek, 1990).
Shown in
Figure 4, this system involved the use of three industrial painting robots
mounted on either side and under the subway vehicle being cleaned. An
operator located remotely would begin the cleaning operations after
preparing the vehicle in advance. The entire system would be controlled
by a master computer that supervised the three individual robot
controllers. A robot-mounted vision system would be use to correct the
robots positions along their tracks. This system is expected to yield
dramatic improvements in working conditions and work quality over the
previous human worker approach.

Power Line Maintenance

Many common maintenance operations on overhead transmission lines are
performed by human operators on live lines. Examples of these tasks
include replacing ceramic insulators that support conductor wire and
opening and reclosing the circuit between poles. These tasks are very
dangerous for the human workers, due to risks from falling from high
places and the risk of electric shock. Obtaining skilled workers to perform
these tasks is quite difficult due to the high training and labor
requirements of the job. Performing the maintenance while the lines are
de-energized would alleviate some of the risks, but would also create other

problems with a society that demands interruption-free service from

electric power companies.
Electric power companies have therefore been investigating the use of
robotic systems for live-line power line maintenance since the mideighties. In particular, power companies in Japan, Spain, and the United
States have developed teleoperated and semi-autonomous approaches to
this problem. One of the first systems developed was the TOMCAT
(Teleoperator for Operations, Maintenance, and Construction using
Advanced Technology), developed as part of an Electric Power Research
Institute (Palo Alto, California) program. The basic TOMCAT concept was
first demonstrated by Philadelphia Electric in 1979 (Dunlap, 1986), with
subsequent development continuing in the 80s, leading to a system
prototype. The TOMCAT system consisted of an insulated bucket truck, a
Kraft seven-function manipulator that was bolted to the end of the truck
boom, a television viewing system for human supervisory control, and
requisite control and power supplies. The operator control components
were mounted on the back of the bucket truck, and included a manipulator
master with no force feedback.
A more recent robotic system for live-line maintenance has been
developed by Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc., in Fukuoka, Japan (Yano, et
al., 1995). The system configuration schematic for the dual-arm robot
system they developed is shown in Figure 5. The earlier phases of this
work involved the development of a two-manipulator telerobotic system;
subsequent phases are incorporating more autonomy to evolve from a
basic master-slave configuration to a human-robot cooperative system.
Laser sensors are used onboard the robot to help with position control. In
the current system, the human works from a control station on the
supporting truck, rather than on the elevated boom, which nearly
eliminates the risk of injury due to falls.
Other related work in this area includes the ROBTET teleoperated system
for live-line maintenance developed by researchers in Spain (Aracil et al.,
1995) and the robot for automatic washing and brushing of polluted
electric insulators (Yi and Jiansheng, 1993) developed in China.
Aircraft Servicing
Aircraft servicing applications may benefit from robotic maintenance in
several areas. The size of modern multi-engine jets makes inspection and
coating removal and application particularly attractive in terms of
improving quality and efficiency. As examples, Siegel, Kaufman, & Alberts
(1993) describe concepts for automating skin inspections, and Birch &
Trego (1995) and Baker et al. (1996) describe stripping and painting
concepts. Automated stripping and painting systems are already in place
at a few U.S. Air Force bases. A robotic assistant for re-arming tactical

fighter aircraft is being developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for
the U.S. Air Force.
Underwater Facilities
Teleoperated robots are widely used to maintain facilities beneath the
surface of the ocean, mainly in service of the offshore oil industry. Specific
applications include repairing communications cables, pipelines, well
heads, and platforms. Teleoperators have also been deployed to clean
marine growth from power plant cooling systems (Edahiro, 1985), to
inspect and clean steam generators (Trovato & Ruggieri, 1991), perform
underwater construction (Yemington, 1991), and to inspect and repair
water conveyance tunnels (Heffron, 1990). While these efforts do not
have the visibility of robotics work in industrial, space, or nuclear
applications, it is an arena in which robotics and remote control technology
are widely used. It is perhaps the most common venue for everyday use of
teleoperated robots. One publication lists 63 companies involved in
building remotely operated vehicles or manipulators for sub-sea work and
180 different, commercially available, remotely controlled systems
(Gallimore & Madsen, 1994). The remotely operated systems range from
towed sensor arrays to submersibles with dexterous manipulators to large
construction machinery.
Coke Ovens
Another example of robotics used in maintenance and repair operations is
a robot developed by Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Japan, for repairing
the chamber wall of a coke oven (Sakai et al, 1988). Damages to coke
ovens occur over years of operations due to repeated cycles of chamber
door opening and coke pushing, which induce damaging changes in
temperature. The result is cracks, joint separations, and chamber wall
abrasion, which can lead to gas leakage, air pollution, and structural flaws
in the ovens. Thus, the effective repair of coke ovens is needed to extend
the life of the ovens and to allow for stable operation.
Especially challenging maintenance operations involve the repair of the
central portion of the oven. This type of repair is very difficult due to the
inaccessibility of the area, the high temperature, and the
predominance of narrow cracks. Any technology for repair in this area
must involve high heat resistance components and mechanisms for
external observation, resulting in repairs of high quality and durability.
The solution to this repair problem was the development of a heatresistant robot, shown in Figure 6, that can autonomously perform
individual crack repair, while being given highlevel guidance through a
human-machine interface. Of special benefit to the industry is the ability
to perform these repairs without disturbing oven operation or incurring a
large firebrick temperature drop.

Summary of Robotics Applications In Maintenance and Repair

In this chapter, we have reviewed the primary application areas in which
robotics is used for maintenance and repair. Some of these application
areas have a significant ongoing effort in robotic development and usage,
while others have received relatively little attention thus far. Table 1
provides a summary of these application areas, noting the importance of
robotics to the maintenance tasks of inspection, planned maintenance,
and disturbance handling.