2010 1st International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry

Delta Centre-Ville
Montréal, Canada, October 5-7, 2010

Application of Robotics for the Nuclear

Power Plants in Korea
Seungho Kim, Seung Ho Jung, Sung Uk Lee, Chang Hoi Kim, Ho Chul Shin, Yong Chil Seo,
Nam Ho Lee and Kyung Min Jung
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Nuclear Robotics Laboratory
1045 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-353, Korea

Abstract--Nuclear energy has become a major energy source to

worldwide, even though we are still debating the environmental
and safety aspects. In order to cope with that safety issues related
to the nuclear power plants, the uncertain human factors needs to
be minimized by automating the inspection and maintenance
work done by human workers. The demands of a robotic system
in the nuclear industry have been growing to ensure the safety of
nuclear facilities, to detect early an unusual condition of it
through an inspection, to protect the human workers from an
irradiation, and to maintain it efficiently.

Index Terms – Robotics, Nuclear Power Plant, Maintenance,

Mobile, Manipulator

I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1 The change of world market of home, field and industry
robot
N RL (Nuclear Robotics Laboratory) in KAERI (Korea
Atomic Energy Research Institute) has been developing
nuclear robotics to guarantee the safety and to enhance II. THE APPLICATION OF MOBILE ROBOTS
the integrity of nuclear facilities with the technologies of tele-
inspection and un-manned maintaining of safety related A. Mobile Platform
equipments. In order to carry out the harsh tasks, a nuclear Safety related equipments of the Reactor Coolant System
robot system should be designed with consideration on high (RCS) have to be monitored and maintained to improve the
radiation exposure and access to the working area. Moreover nuclear plant`s efficiency, availability and integrity from a
manipulator is required to complete the various tasks such as thermal loading, vibrations, and various types of corrosion.
handling radioactive wastes and other contaminated objects. RCS maintenance work conducted during a plant refueling
outage involves complex tasks and the environment is
14 Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) are operating currently and
inherently hazardous because of a high radiation level and
10 NPPs are planned to be built until 2040 in Korea for a
contamination. Therefore, a series of mobile robots named as
stable and economical electricity supply. Since 1992, a KAEROT have been developed to maintain RCS[1,2].
national mid and long term R&D program was launched and KAEROT series is a multi-functional mobile system for the
established for “An improvement of the safety and an inspection and maintenance of a primary system in a nuclear
enhancement of the reliability of nuclear power plants” and power plant. It consists of a mobile system, a manipulator or a
“Innovation of technologies in nuclear energy programs” as mast mechanism and sensory systems. The mobile systems are
well. In the 1st and 2nd phases of the development, mobile designed to have the features of a modularity, reliability as
type robots and remote controlled manipulators with related well as a stability. KAEROT/m1 in Fig.1 is a four planetary-
core technologies are being developed to be utilized in the wheeled mobile robot capable of ascending and descending
inspection of pressure tubes in the Primary Heat Transport stairs and navigating a flat surface with a zero turning radius.
System (PHTS) of PHWRs and Pressurized Light Water KAEROT/m2 in Fig.1 has planetary wheels with three small
Reactors (PWRs) [1,2]. omni directional wheels that have six elliptical shaped rollers
Fig. 1 shows world and domestic market share of field which make it possible to move in any directions. A
robot in hazardous environment like a nuclear power plants manipulator is mounted on top of the mobile system which has
and so on. Field robot market will be increased continuously six DOFs. The electrical driven manipulator is designed to
and gradually due to the tremendous technology development handle a 5kg payload at the end-effector at full length, with a
in robotics and microprocessors. Giant paradigm change will resolution of 0.3mm on all axes for a find positioning of the
be expected in the application of robotics for these reasons. end-effector.

978-1-4244-6635-1/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

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Fig. 2 A series of mobile robots named as KAEROT/m1 and

m2 designed to go up the stairs

KAEROT/m3 in Fig.2, was designed in accordance of

design criteria in table 1. It has a wheel-drive mechanism with
four tracks to climb up and pass over obstacles for inspecting Fig. 4 Fuel exchange machine of PHWRs.
the calandria front side face of PHWR at full power reactor
operation. The 10 meter-long mast mechanism enables it to Korea Hydraulic Nuclear Plant (KHNP) has been
inspect the pressure tubes and feeder pipes precisely by an developing a long reach automatic tool in the preparation of
infra-red camera. emergence condition. The position control was not easy for
human operator, hence KAERI modified KAEROT/m3 with
increasing payload up to 100Kg from 5kg to carry a tool for
manipulating the emergency stop valves at a full power
operation.
Tele-scopic mast mechanism consists of a 2 dof
installer mechanism, a 5 dof manipulator with driving tools, a
control system, and video systems. The normal and emergency
control modes are available to operator in the case of a
malfunction of the controller to retrieve the robot with the
emergency control switches. Fig. 5 shows the robotic systems
for a maintenance at a mock-up.
The mobile robot is equipped with four wheels and track
mechanisms with omni-directional wheels to reduce the
friction while steering which are circular wheels with two
arrays of six small idle wheels whose axis is perpendicular to
the circular wheel.
Fig.3. KAEROT/m3 mobile robot for emergency operation
of fuel exchange machine in calandria Manual drive
mechanism
mockup
RAM
drive part
Table 1. Design criteria of KAEROT/m3

Mobile Platform Mast Tilt part

- Passing Gate : - Extendibility :

Height 2m 1.1m ∼ 8.4m
Width 1.5m
- Camera weight : 5Kg
- Ditch: Depth 25cm Mast
Width 75cm

PHWRs use heavy water because it does not attenuate the

neutron inside the reactor, which should be refueled during a
full power operation. Two fuel exchange machine, as shown in
Fig 4, are assigned for a refueling, are a radiation tolerant and
a reliable hydraulic actuating system. To recover from Fig5. Tele-scopic mast mechanism consists of a installer
unwanted abnormal condition without a shut-down, the fuel mechanism, at manipulator in a mock-up
handling machine should be released remotely at the rear side
with a manual drive mechanisms.
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C. Reactor Head Exterior Inspection Robot

The PWR(Pressurized Light Water Reactor) has CRDM
(Control Rod Drive Mechanism) nozzles at the reactor head
and many instrumental nozzle at the bottom of the reactor. The
former houses of CRDM that regulates the power output of the
neutron emission and temperature of the reactor.
In 2002, CRDM nozzle leaks were discovered in several
nuclear plants in United States, which raised the need for an
inspection of the reactor head. The primary method for
detecting leaks from the CRDM head penetration nozzle is th
perform a visual examination of the welding part at the nozzle
and head intersection. Any areas that exhibit characteristic
"White deposits" are indicative of a boron salt residue coming
from a primary coolant leak. The bottom part of a reactor has
similar inspection method with a different working
Fig. 6. KAEROT/m4 on-site field test in a Wolsung nuclear
environment.
power plant
Robot can move between CRDM and is attached to the
reactor head surface by using a magnetic wheel to prevent it
from skidding. Fig.8 shows the reactor bottom inspection robot,
B. Underwater Robot for Reactor Vessel Inspection which has a high resolution pan/tilt camera and three
The presence of loose parts in the primary coolant system additional cameras with a different view angle. The slave robot
can be an indication of a degraded reactor safety resulting shown in Fig.8 observes the movement of the main robot and
from a failure or weakening of safety-related components. A helps the robot operator to control it easily.
loose part, whether it is from a failed or weakened component
or from an item inadvertently left in the primary coolant
system during construction, refueling, or maintenance such as
loose metallic parts, bolts, nuts and washers can contribute to
component damage and material wear by a frequent impacting
with other parts in the system. A loose part increases the
possibility for a control rod jamming and for an accumulation
of increased levels of radioactive crud in the primary coolant
system. NRL is developing the underwater mobile robot for a
loose part detection and removal in the nuclear reactor
vessel[2][3]. The robot was deployed to inspect the loss of
RTD (Resistance Temperature Detector) sensor at the Fig. 8 Robot moving between CRDM with attached to the
Youngkwang unit 5 in 2004 as shown in Fig.7. reactor head surface by magnetic wheels

D. Feeder Pipe Inspection Robot for PWRs

The outlet feeder pipe thinning in PHWRs (Pressurized
Heavy Water Reactor) is caused by a high pressure steam flow
inside the pipe, which is a well known degradation mechanism
called FAC (Flow Assisted Corrosion). In order to monitor the
degradation, the thickness of the outlet bends close to the exit
of the pressure tube should be measured and analyzed at every
official overhaul. However, collecting high quality data is a
challenge, mainly due to a lack of space around the pipes,
especially for 2.5 inch pipes and the roughness of the feeder
pipes. Moreover, although the reactor is shutdown in the
overhaul period, the radiation dose is severe near the feeder
pipe because they are located in front of the reactor.
As shown in Fig. 9, the robot can move by itself on the
Fig. 7. KAEROT/uv1 in Youngkwang nuclear power plant feeder pipe by using an inch worm mechanism, which is
constructed by two gripper bodies that can fix the robot body
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on to the pipe and one extension/contraction actuator and from a remote site [6]. This system consists mainly of two
rotation actuator connected to the two gripper bodies, which master/slave with 6 dof manipulators, a supporting device and
move to axial direction and rotate in a circumferential a monitoring system. The slave manipulator is driven by a
direction of pipes. hydraulic manipulator and is designed to have a capacity of a
60kg pay load to carry the nozzle dam at the end-effector.
The master manipulator is designed to have a back-
Front C/ E Rotation Rear
Gripper Motor Motor Gripper
drivability, a light weight and a force reflection using a wire
mechanism. The supporting device has one rotary mechanism
acting as the main lifting device and one linear mechanism
mounted on the top of the rotary mechanism. The monitoring
system was composed of a camera and a light to view all the
interior of the water chamber.

Front
Camera

Fig.9. Feeder pipes inspection robot actuated by pneumatic

power

III. MANIPULATORS

A. Steam Generator Inspection and Maintenance Robot

Steam generators of a nuclear power plant are heat Fig. 10 Hydraulic driven high pay load manipulator ADAM has
exchangers which are internally in contact with the primary redundancy for nozzle dam operation.
coolant and externally in contact with the secondary coolant
which goes to the turbine generator.
The steam generator has nearly 8,000 tubes for heat
exchange. The tubes are welded into a thick tube seat that
encloses the upper hemisphere of the plenum. The integrity of
the tube influences the degree of the radioactive contamination
appearing on the secondary side. Therefore, the inspection and
maintenance of the steam generator tubes are one of the most
important processes for its safety.
NRL developed a radiation hardened robotic system to
assist in on automatic non-destructive testing and repair of
nuclear steam generator tubes without human workers in the Fig. 11 Electrically driven manipulator KAEROT/a6SG with graphic
plenum[4][5]. Eddy-current testing and an evaluation simulator for ECT in SG U tubes
technique are used to validate the integrity of the tubes as
shown in Fig.5. The robotic system consists of five DOFs C. Reactor CRDM Penetration Shroud Welding Robot
robot manipulator, multi-axis robot controller, sensor control
and data acquisition system, and the robot host controller. The Shroud welding robot is consisted of remote control system,
robot manipulator has a scalar type with two DOFs trunk vertical guider with a SCARA type robot manipulator to repair
mechanism for adjusting the position and orientation of the by welding of damaged reactor head penetration pipes.
manipulator. Industrial multi-axis motor controller and driver Control Rod Drive Mechanism ( CRDM ) robot was designed
is used for the local controller, and a windows based host to come up with the Korea standard type reactor heads on the
control program is developed, assisted by 3-D graphics, which consideration of the past repair history. Considering on the
helps the robot operator. interaction of reactor environments and robot reliability, we
B. Nozzle Dam Installation and Removal Robot counted for accessibility, availability for repair, and
protection of robot in failure conditions. Moving range of
The nozzle dam installation/removal robotic system was
vertical guider is 1.3m to cover the full range of reactor head
developed to perform an unmanned nozzle dam installation
and to pass through the gate. Robot system is able to separate
and removal tasks inside a steam generator water chamber
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two modules (Vertical guider with a SCARA type robot dose rate, and reduce the maintenance duration and cost.
manipulator ) for easy transportation. Advances achieved through this project are expected to be
transferred to other non-nuclear applications

V. REFERENCES
[1] S. Kim, et al., Design of Tele-operated Robot
System for Nozzle Dam Maintenance in Steam
Generator, Proceedings of Application of Artificial
Intelligence and Robotics to Nuclear Plants, pp.
359-367, 1994.
[2] S. Kim et al., The Development of Robotic system
for the Nuclear Power Plant, KAERI/RR1631/95,
Fig.12 Vertical guider simulation result and 3D user interface
Daejeon, Korea, 1996
[3] S. Kim , The Development of Radiation Hardened
The remote control system is consisted of power supply,
Robot for Nuclear Facilities, KAERI/RR-1953/98,
motor driver, motion controller, communication module with Daejon, Korea, 1998
ethernet, and manual control panel in the preparation of [4] S. Kim, et al., The Development of an
system failure. 3-D graphics provides operator to understand Inspection/Maintenance Robot for steam Generator
remote area in real time. Tubes, KAERI/RR-2324/2002, Daejon, Korea, 2002
[5] S. Kim et al, Field Application Technology
Development of Inspection/Repair Robot for Steam
Generator at Nuclear Power Plant, KAERI/CM-
603/2002, Deajeon, Korea, 2002.
[6] S. Kim et al, The Development of Optimization
Technique for Tele-operating Robot Manipulators in
Steam Generators, KAERI/CM-603/2002, Deajeon,
Korea, 2002.
[7] S. Kim et al., The Development of Mobile Robot
for Monitoring and Inspection of Calandria faces in
PHWR, KAERI/RR-2309/2002. Daejon, Korea,
2003.
[8] S. Kim, et al, ``The Development of Mobile Robot
for Monitoring and Inspection of Calandria faces in
PHWR," KAERI/RR-2309/ 2002, Daejon, Korea,
2003.
[9] C. Choi, et al., "A Radiation Hardened Redundant
Controller for a Nuclear Robot," Int. Conf. on
Fig.13 Manipulator with vertical guide and host controller Electrical Engineering (ICEE2006), EC1-02, 2006.
[10] C. Choi,, et al, "Tele-Operated Fuel Handling
IV. CONCLUSIONS Machine Manipulation Robot for the Nuclear Power
The robotic systems developed in NRL have introduced on Plants," The Asian Control Conf., pp. 983-987, 2006.
the mobile robot that includes general purpose mobile platform,
and an articulated manipulator or mast mechanism.
Application for underwater robot to inspect a reactor vessel, VI. BIOGRAPHIES
small mobile robot with cameras for a reactor exterior
inspection, and an inch-worm style robot for a feeder pipe Seungho Kim was born in Inchon,
inspection have been described for the inspection of reactors, a Korea, on June 15, 1953. He received
steam generator tube with an eddy current sensor system, and the B.S degree in mechanical
so on. engineering in 1979 from Yonsei
Since the worldwide energy policy are concerned mostly university, Seoul, Korea, and Ph. D.
with the environmental issues which will be a major factor in degree from the same graduated school
in 1988. Since 1980. he was in charge of
the near future, the need for nuclear energy has increased.
Nuclear Robotics Laboratory in the
Thus, a robotic system that is closely related to the
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.
enhancement of the safety and integrity of both the power
His interest currently related to robotic system design, 3D-
plant and the workers. These tele-robotic systems are expected vision, radiation hardening techniques, sensor fusion system.
to improve safety of plants, reduce the personnel exposure