Development of a force reflecting Tele-robot for remote handling in nuclear installations

Remotisation plays a vital role in all nuclear installations. Availability of reliable remote handling gadgets in nuclear installations ensures higher productivity as well as safety. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(BARC), Mumbai is currently developing a Tele-robot based on a recently developed Force Reflecting Servo Manipulator(FSM). The Tele-robot represents a new generation of remote handling technology with advanced features like scaling of slave motion, tremor removal, constrained motion, teach and playback mode, interactive robot mode etc. This paper discusses about the design and implementation of the control system for the Tele-robot. This system is based on a tightly coupled distributed digital micro-processing technique. The Tele-robot will ensure higher safety, productivity, as well as better operator assistance in the autonomous mode.