Nuclear and aerospace industries utilize snake-arm robots

Citation

(2006), "Nuclear and aerospace industries utilize snake-arm robots", Industrial Robot, Vol. 33 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2006.04933dab.008

Nuclear and aerospace industries utilize snake-arm robots

Nuclear and aerospace industries utilize snake-arm robots

Keywords: Robotics, Nuclear industry

OCRobotics has recently completed contracts with British Nuclear Group and Comau Pico and is now working with Airbus to automate assembly tasks within wing boxes (Plate 2).

In December 2005, OCRobotics completed an initial contract with British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd to conduct a feasibility study and to specify a design for a snake-arm robot for use at their Thorp facility. The proposed snake-arm will be OCRobotics' longest, at around 10 m, and is intended for inspection, instrumentation and repair activities on site.

Plate 2 OCRobotics can design snake-arms to be large and durable as well as small and complaint

OCRobotics' Technical Director, Andrew Graham, says, “this project will be very exciting, given that the reach and payload capacity of this arm will exceed any we have built so far. This project will demonstrate the scaleability of our technology and we are pleased to be working with BNG.” OCRobotics expects the second phase of this project to commence in mid-2006.

In the same month OCRobotics also completed a contract with Comau Pico Inc. investigating the use of snake-arm robots for aerospace coating applications.

Currently, standard industrial robots are used to coat the inner surfaces of a structure. The structures are oriented many times to compensate for the axis limitations of the robot and the awkward areas of the assembly. OCRobotics designed a snake-arm robot flexible enough to reach into any area of the assembly from a single point without any structure re-orientation, thereby increasing production rates.

OCRobotics has also won a contract from airbus to develop snake-arm robot technology for possible aircraft manufacturing processes. The focus will be assembly tasks within wing boxes – an area currently inaccessible to automation.

The composite, single skin construction of aircraft structures, such as the A350 wing, presents new challenges for robotic assembly. Today an aircraft fitter climbs into the wing box through a small access panel and uses manual or power tools to perform a variety of tasks. OCRobotics' snake-arm robots provide the opportunity to replace manual procedures by delivering the required tools to all areas of the wing box. They could be used to perform tasks such as final sealant application and swaging.

More widely the development of snake-arm robots could ultimately enable major design and process changes creating the opportunity for considerable cost savings for the aerospace industry. Future wings could be designed with fewer and smaller access panels and maintenance times could be reduced.

A demonstration snake-arm robot will be completed in mid-2006. On successful completion of trials, the industrialization process will be completed in the following 12 months.

With ongoing development project with the UK Ministry of Defence, OCRobotics is continuing to explore the use of its snake-arm robot technology in the field of improvised explosive device defeat.

These recent contracts have not only demonstrated the scaleability of OCRobotics' design, but also its suitability to a multitude of applications.

Please contact Ros Anscombe (ros@ocrobotics.com; 01173144700) for more information.