JP7159123B2 - Remote work support device and remote work system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a remote work support device and a remote work system that assist movement of a remote work device.

In a nuclear power plant, inspection, maintenance, repair work, etc. of the reactor pressure vessel and internal structures must be carried out in a radiation environment. These operations in a radiation environment involve radiation exposure of workers, and in order to protect the health of workers, it is necessary to reduce the exposure dose.
In order to reduce the radiation exposure dose of workers, remote working devices such as radiation-resistant robots are used to perform inspection and repair work remotely without the workers entering the radiation environment. . In general, electronic devices fail in a short period of time in a radiation environment, so it is necessary to avoid installing electronic devices in devices operating in a radiation environment as much as possible. For this reason, the remote working device is not equipped with a wireless communication device or a sensor, which is an electronic device, and a sensor, a control device, and the like are placed remotely from the working environment as a wired remote working device.

FIG. 10 shows a bird's-eye view of general remote work in a radiation environment. A cable for supplying power to the remote working device, a cable for controlling the device, a fluid pipe for driving the device, and the like are connected to the wired remote working device. Therefore, when the remote work device moves, it is necessary to move these linear members such as cables and pipes. Currently, a remote working device moves while pulling a linear member. At this time, since the linear member becomes a load due to its own weight and friction with the ground surface, a large traction force is required for the remote working device. In order to provide a remote work device with a large traction force, the device becomes large and heavy, which hinders movement. Further, when moving the linear member, the linear member may be twisted, which may hinder the movement of the remote working device. In such a case, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-100000 discloses a mobile fluid ejection device that ejects a fluid and utilizes a reaction force as a method of driving the linear member itself and assisting the movement of the remote work device.

JP 2017-164069 A

However, in Patent Document 1, in order to drive the linear member without twisting, it is necessary to control the pressure at the ejection port during ejection of the fluid. Therefore, the linear member requires sensors and actuators, which may make it difficult to use in a radiation environment.

Therefore, the present invention provides a remote work support device and a remote work system that can be used in a radiation environment without mounting a sensor on a linear member, without requiring pressure control, and preventing twisting.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a remote work support device according to the present invention is a remote work support device for a remote work device, which is connected to the remote work device and a control device for controlling the remote work device. and a flexible pipe internally provided with a fluid pipe connected to a fluid device, the pipe having a surface shape on the ground surface side, and the pipe has a fluid injection port capable of injecting fluid onto the ground surface, and the fluid is injected onto the ground surface.

Further, a remote work system according to the present invention is connected to a remote work device having at least a manipulator and a moving mechanism, and a control device for controlling the remote work device and the remote work device, and provides a driving force and a control signal to the remote work device. and a fluid pipe connected to a fluid device. and a remote work support device that has a fluid injection port capable of injecting a fluid to the ground surface and that injects the fluid onto the ground surface.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a remote work support device and a remote work system that can be used in a radiation environment without mounting a sensor on a linear member, without requiring pressure control, and preventing twisting.
Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will be clarified by the following description of the embodiments.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote work system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. It is a figure which shows sectional drawing of piping shown in FIG. 1, and a ground plane side. It is a figure which shows the ground surface side of piping when the size of a fluid ejection port is changed. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the pipe when the pipe is rotated by fluid injection; It is a figure which shows sectional drawing of piping which has a cushion, and a ground plane side. It is the figure which compared the dynamic friction force at the time of not applying the piping which concerns on a present Example, and the time of application. FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote work system according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the piping shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 10 is a bird's-eye view of an example in which a pipe is constrained by a corner of a wall surface when the remote work device is bent, and an example in which the constraint is released by jetting fluid. 1 is a bird's-eye view of general remote work in a radiation environment;

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote work system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a remote work system 100 is composed of a remote work device 1 and a remote work support device 2 .

The remote work device 1 includes a manipulator 3 capable of handling an object, a moving mechanism 4 such as a crawler, a control device 5 , and a cable 6 connecting the control device 5 to the manipulator 3 and the moving mechanism 4 . Here, the cables 6 may be replaced with other linear members such as hydraulic piping. The remote working device 1 performs operations such as remote movement and cutting of objects by transmitting operation commands for the manipulator 3 and the moving mechanism 4 input to the control device 5 through the cable 6 . Here, regardless of the configuration of the remote working device 1, the device may have a camera and be used for remote environmental investigation.

The remote work support device 2 includes a fluid device 7 such as a pump for causing fluid to flow through the pipe 10, a fluid injection port 9 capable of injecting the fluid flowing through the fluid pipe 8 onto a ground surface, and a fluid connected to the fluid device 7. It is composed of a pipe 8 and a pipe 10 having a cable 6 therein. The remote work support device 2 ejects the fluid from the fluid ejection port 9 onto the ground surface to reduce the normal force and frictional force applied to the pipe 10 when the remote work device 1 moves, thereby reducing the movement of the remote work device 1. It supports.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the pipe 10 shown in FIG. 1 and the ground plane side of the pipe 10 . As shown in the right diagram of FIG. 2 , a plurality of fluid ejection ports 9 are provided along the fluid pipe 8 . The number and arrangement of the fluid ejection ports 9 are not limited to those shown on the right side of FIG. 2, and they may be arranged irregularly. Moreover, in the fluid pipe 8, the pressure loss increases as the pipe length increases. Therefore, the pressure at the ejection port 9 farther from the fluid device 7 becomes smaller than the pressure at the fluid ejection port 9 closer to the fluid device 7 . Therefore, by making the sizes of the fluid ejection ports 9 different according to the distance from the fluid device 7 as shown in FIG. 3, the pressure at each fluid ejection port 9 can be made uniform. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the opening diameter of the fluid ejection port 9 increases as the distance from the fluid device 7 increases. However, it is not limited to this, and depending on the viscosity of the fluid ejected from the fluid ejection port 9, it may be preferable to decrease the opening diameter of the fluid ejection port 9 as the distance from the fluid device 7 increases. In other words, the opening diameter of the fluid ejection port 9 should be determined in proportion to the distance from the fluid device 7 .

The pipe 10 is likely to receive buoyancy when the fluid is injected, and in order to prevent twisting of the pipe, the ground surface side of the pipe 10 has a surface shape as shown in the left and right drawings of FIG. Here, the surface shape is defined as follows. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing how the pipe rotates when the fluid is ejected from the fluid ejection port 9 to the ground surface. Considering that the target rotation angle is θ or less (θ<90°), the conditional expression for that is:
h/w<1/tan θ−αpA/(mg sin θ)
is given by Here, h is the height of the center of gravity of the pipe from the ground surface of the pipe, w is the width of the pipe, α is a coefficient representing pressure loss, p is the original pressure, A is the area of the pipe receiving buoyancy, and m is the mass of the pipe. The surface shape in this embodiment is defined such that the height h from the contact surface to the position of the center of gravity and the pipe width w satisfy the above conditional expressions. Further, as long as this condition is satisfied, the contact surface does not have to be smooth, and may be wavy or uneven.

The piping 10 may be configured to have a cushion 11 around the fluid injection port 9 with respect to the ground surface as shown in the left and right diagrams of FIG. A cushion 11 may be provided for each fluid ejection port 9 . When the ground surface is rough, it has the effect of assisting the ground contact with the ground surface and making it easier to receive buoyancy. Here, the cushion 11 is made of, for example, a rubber material or a tubular body such as vinyl whose interior is filled with air.

The pressure applied by the fluid device 7 such as a pump for causing the fluid to flow through the pipe 10 is designed from the length, width, mass, etc. of the pipe 10 . Here, it is assumed that the fluid leakage from the space formed by the ground contact surface of the pipe 10 and the cushion 11 is small and the pressure in the space is substantially equal. Further, it is assumed that the coefficient of dynamic friction does not change before and after the application of the pipe 10 according to the present embodiment. For example, the fluid used is air, the length l of the pipe 10 is 50 m, the mass m of the pipe 10 is 200 kg, the width w of the pipe 10 is 10 cm, the width w _a of the cushion 11 is 1.5 cm, and the cushion 11 is provided. Consider the case of FIG. If μ is the coefficient of dynamic friction and A is the area of the pipe 10 that receives the buoyancy, the dynamic friction force that the pipe 10 receives is μ (mg-pA) as shown in the right diagram of FIG. On the other hand, when the pipe 10 according to the present embodiment is not applied, the dynamic frictional force received by the pipe 10 is μmg as shown in the left diagram of FIG. 6 . Therefore, the dynamic friction force ratio before and after application of the pipe 10 according to the present embodiment is (mg-pA)/(mg). Here, when the dynamic friction force ratio is set to 0.11 and the target is to reduce the dynamic friction force by 89%, the applied pressure p is determined to be 0.5 kPa.

Next, the flow of supporting the movement of the remote work device 1 by the remote work support device 2 will be described. Consider moving the remote work device 1 from a stationary state to another position. First, the fluid device 7 connected to the fluid pipe 8 is activated, pressure is applied to the fluid pipe 8, and fluid such as water or air is allowed to flow. A pressure layer is generated between the pipe 10 and the ground surface by the fluid flowing through the fluid pipe 8 and ejecting the fluid from the fluid injection port 9 to the ground surface, giving the pipe 10 buoyancy. The buoyancy imparted to the pipe 10 reduces the normal force that the pipe 10 receives from the ground plane. By reducing the normal force, the dynamic frictional force generated between the pipe 10 and the ground surface during movement is reduced. A control command is sent from the control device 5 of the remote working device 1 to the remote working device 1 via the cable 6 to move the remote working device 1 during the injection of the fluid with the reduced dynamic friction force.
In addition, for example, the fluid device 7 such as a pump is driven so as to achieve a predetermined fluid pressure in synchronization with the drive of the crawler. Here, the fluid device 7 does not require real-time control. That is, the fluid pressure should be set to a predetermined value (constant).

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to provide a remote work support device and a remote work system that can be used in a radiation environment without mounting a sensor on a linear member, without requiring pressure control, and preventing twisting. It becomes possible.
Further, by reducing the dynamic frictional force that is the load applied to the remote working device 1, the remote working device 1 can be moved with a smaller traction force than when the pipe 10 according to the present embodiment is not applied.

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote work system according to another embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that a fluid pipe 12 provided on the side of the pipe 10 constituting the remote work system 100a and a fluid ejection port 13 provided on the side are further provided. The rest of the configuration is the same as that of the above-described first embodiment, and hereinafter, the same constituent elements as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant descriptions of the first embodiment will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the pipe 10 has a fluid pipe 12 and a fluid injection port 13 provided on the side surface as shown in FIG.
Next, the flow of supporting the movement of the remote work device 1 by the remote work support device 2a will be described. As shown in FIG. 9, when the remote working device 1 bends, the pipe 10 contacts the corner of the wall surface and is restrained by frictional force, so that the remote working device 1 cannot move. At this time, by moving the pipe 10 in the horizontal direction, the pipe 10 is separated from the wall surface, and the remote working device 1 can be moved. First, by reducing the normal force applied to the pipe 10 in the same manner as in the first embodiment, the dynamic friction force generated between the pipe 10 and the ground surface during movement is reduced. By applying pressure to the fluid pipe 12 provided on the side surface by the fluid device 7 during the injection of the fluid whose dynamic friction force is reduced, and by injecting the fluid to the side of the pipe 10 from each fluid injection port 13, the pipe 10 allows horizontal movement of The pipe 10 is horizontally moved away from the wall surface, and a control command is sent from the control device 7 of the remote working device 1 to the remote working device 1 via the cable 6 to move the remote working device 1 . Here, if the dynamic friction force generated between the ground contact surface and the pipe 10 is of a magnitude that does not hinder the movement in the horizontal direction, there is no need to jet the fluid to the contact contact surface. By driving a fluid device 7 such as a pump so as to achieve a predetermined fluid pressure in synchronization with driving of the crawler, fluid is ejected from each fluid ejection port 9 on the ground surface side of the surface shape of the pipe 10, When the hooking of the pipe 10 is detected, the fluid is jetted from the fluid pipe 12 and the fluid jet port 13 . Here, as a method of detecting that the pipe 10 is caught, for example, it can be realized by detecting the rotation speed or the rotation angle of the motor that drives the crawler with a linear encoder.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, the restriction due to contact friction with the wall surface is released, and the remote work device 1 can be moved.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and includes various modifications. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail in order to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the described configurations. In addition, it is possible to replace part of the configuration of one embodiment with the configuration of another embodiment, and it is also possible to add the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 remote work device 2, 2a remote work support device 3 manipulator 4 movement mechanism 5 control device 6 cable 7 fluid device 8 fluid pipe 9 fluid injection port 10 pipe 11 cushion 12 side surface Equipped fluid piping 13... Fluid injection ports 100, 100a provided on the side... Remote work system

Claims (8)

A remote work support device for a remote work device,
A flexible device internally comprising a linear member connected to the remote working device and a control device for controlling the remote working device and applying a driving force and a control signal to the remote working device, and a fluid pipe connected to a fluid device. and the pipe has a surface shape on the ground surface side,
The remote work support device, wherein the fluid pipe and the pipe have a fluid injection port capable of injecting the fluid onto the ground surface, and the fluid is injected onto the ground surface. The remote work support device according to claim 1,
A remote work support device, wherein a plurality of the fluid injection ports are provided in the fluid pipe and the pipe, and an opening diameter of the fluid injection port is proportional to a distance from the fluid device. In the remote work support device according to claim 2,
A remote work support device, comprising a cushion around the fluid injection port. The remote work support device according to claim 1,
A remote work support device, wherein the piping further has a fluid piping and a fluid injection port provided on a side surface. a remote working device comprising at least a manipulator and a moving mechanism;
A flexible device internally comprising a linear member connected to the remote working device and a control device for controlling the remote working device and applying a driving force and a control signal to the remote working device, and a fluid pipe connected to a fluid device. The pipe has a surface shape on the ground surface side, the fluid pipe and the pipe have a fluid injection port capable of injecting fluid to the ground surface, and a remote for injecting fluid to the ground surface A remote work system comprising: a work support device; In the remote work system according to claim 5,
A remote work system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said fluid ejection ports are provided in said fluid pipe and said pipe, and an opening diameter of said fluid ejection port is proportional to a distance from said fluid device. In the remote work system according to claim 6,
A remote work system, comprising a cushion around the fluid ejection port. In the remote work system according to claim 5,
The remote work system, wherein the piping further has a fluid piping and a fluid injection port provided on a side surface.

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