Publications Details

A review of technology for contact protection of remediation manipulators (WHC Issue 39)

Thunborg, S.

Remediation of waste from Underground Storage Tanks (UST) at Hanford will require the use of large remotely controlled equipment. Inherent safety methods need to be identified and incorporated into the retrieval system to prevent contact damage to the UST or to the remediation equipment. This report discusses the requirements for an adequate protection system and reviews the major technologies available for inclusion in a damage protection system. The report proposes that adequate reliability of a protection system can be achieved through the use of two fully-independent subsafety systems. Safety systems technologies reviewed were Force/Torque Sensors, Overload Protection Devices, Ultrasonic Sensors, Capacitance Sensors, Controller Software Limit Graphic Collision Detection, and End Point Tracking. A relative comparison between retrieval systems protection technologies is presented.