Laser-guided underwater wall climbing robot for reactor pressure vessel inspection
AssigneeKorea Atomic Energy Research Institute
InventorsJae-Hee Kim, Heung-Seop Eom, Ko-Ryuh Kim, Jae-Cheol Lee, You-Rark Choi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for inspection of a reactor pressure vessel uses a laser driven type underwater wall climbing robot guided by a laser pointer. The inspection apparatus uses a small and light underwater wall climbing robot for the quick and adequate inspection of weld lines of a reactor pressure vessel. Position control methods are provided for the stable guidance of the robot to desired three dimensional inspection positions on the reactor pressure vessel.
Claims13
A laser guided ultrasonic inspection apparatus, said apparatus comprising:
- an underwater robot for independently moving along a path on an inner wall of a reactor vessel;
- and
- a laser pointer having a laser beam source thereupon, said laser pointer being multi-directionally tiltable from a fixed position relative to an interior of the reactor vessel,
- wherein said laser pointer guides said underwater robot along the path.
A method for controlling a laser guided inspection apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing an underwater robot for independently moving along a path on an inner wall of a reactor vessel;
- providing a laser pointer having a laser beam thereupon and being multi-directionally tiltable from a fixed position relative to an interior of the reactor vessel, said underwater robot being configured to follow a path determined by the laser pointer;
- controlling the underwater robot by moving the laser pointer along a path, said path being determined by:
- ##EQU3## where,
- v.sub.l, v.sub.r :left/right wheel velocity,
- v.sub.c, .phi.:linear and angular velocity of a robot center,
- e.sub.x, e.sub.y :position error to the direction of x, y axes,
- K.sub.py, K.sub.dy, K.sub.px, K.sub.dx :the gain of a corresponding controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.