Motion planning with inverse kinematics and statics of a breeding blanket transporter for robotic remote maintenance of the EU DEMO tokamak

Motion planning with inverse kinematics and statics of a breeding blanket transporter for robotic remote maintenance of the EU DEMO tokamak | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Motion planning with inverse kinematics and statics of a breeding blanket transporter for robotic remote maintenance of the EU DEMO tokamak Hjalte Durocher, Christian Bachmann, Rocco Mozzillo, Guenter Janeschitz, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6346176/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The future demonstration fusion power plant EU DEMO must be maintained remotely in reasonable time to achieve safety as well as economic viability. The largest in-vessel components which will need to be replaced are the breeding blankets (BB’s). Each vacuum vessel sector contains 5 BB segments: two inboard weighing 125 t each and three outboard weighing 180 t each. The BB vertical transporter (BBVT) is a crane-like robotic arm which has been previously designed at a conceptual level to remove and replace the BB segments through the upper port. It has an actuated gripper and 7 joints, which are required for grasping and manipulating the BB segments in 3D space. The BBVT was modeled as a redundant manipulator, and the inverse kinematic problem was solved analytically for cases when one joint position is known. This was applied to generate collision-free waypoints for BB segment handling in the limited confines of the vacuum vessel and upper port while minimizing static loads on the tilting joints. Mechanical Engineering Robotics kinematics remote maintenance DEMO Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6346176","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":436443979,"identity":"57c06a7b-5435-4ed6-9c8e-32d573a178e3","order_by":0,"name":"Hjalte Durocher","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7653-5586","institution":"Aarhus University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hjalte","middleName":"","lastName":"Durocher","suffix":""},{"id":436443980,"identity":"ccb22de3-88a2-437b-81c7-135323c748ff","order_by":1,"name":"Christian Bachmann","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"EUROfusion","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Christian","middleName":"","lastName":"Bachmann","suffix":""},{"id":436443981,"identity":"5fe8a3f1-e217-411e-961a-167b16d3592e","order_by":2,"name":"Rocco Mozzillo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Basilicata University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rocco","middleName":"","lastName":"Mozzillo","suffix":""},{"id":436443982,"identity":"0c400677-8ecd-46f3-8d97-63e649354b3c","order_by":3,"name":"Guenter Janeschitz","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guenter","middleName":"","lastName":"Janeschitz","suffix":""},{"id":436444182,"identity":"10f1c9ea-2ad0-4517-ab26-afa91472589b","order_by":4,"name":"Xuping Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAtElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNoYPMCbPASK1MM4gWQszD0laDG6kP3tsm3NHjoH9jAHDmzNEaJGckZBunLvtmTEDT44B45wbRGjhl0g4Jp277XBiA0OOATPPB8I6GNgkEtukLbcdrm/gf0OkFn6JZDZpxm2HExgkQLYQ4zDJnmdskr3bnhm2STwrODiHGO8bHE9/JvFz2x15fv7kjQ/eHCNCCxQcAKYBEEkCIEnxKBgFo2AUjDQAAMDINL+Il7LvAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Aarhus University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xuping","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-31 15:28:35","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6346176/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6346176/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":79633267,"identity":"a503b9f8-fb15-4843-adb4-1c20ef5b296e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-01 03:45:21","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1268186,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6346176/v1_covered_8b3ea382-f984-461c-a4a4-8cf77be2e80f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eMotion planning with inverse kinematics and statics of a breeding blanket transporter for robotic remote maintenance of the EU DEMO tokamak\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Aarhus University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"kinematics, remote maintenance, DEMO","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6346176/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6346176/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe future demonstration fusion power plant EU DEMO must be maintained remotely in reasonable time to achieve safety as well as economic viability. The largest in-vessel components which will need to be replaced are the breeding blankets (BB’s). Each vacuum vessel sector contains 5 BB segments: two inboard weighing 125 t each and three outboard weighing 180 t each. The BB vertical transporter (BBVT) is a crane-like robotic arm which has been previously designed at a conceptual level to remove and replace the BB segments through the upper port. It has an actuated gripper and 7 joints, which are required for grasping and manipulating the BB segments in 3D space. The BBVT was modeled as a redundant manipulator, and the inverse kinematic problem was solved analytically for cases when one joint position is known. This was applied to generate collision-free waypoints for BB segment handling in the limited confines of the vacuum vessel and upper port while minimizing static loads on the tilting joints.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Motion planning with inverse kinematics and statics of a breeding blanket transporter for robotic remote maintenance of the EU DEMO tokamak","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-01 03:37:14","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6346176/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ae1ac12c-7bf2-4135-a2fa-4e57a14f29f7","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 1st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":46469563,"name":"Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":46469564,"name":"Robotics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-04-01T03:37:14+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-01 03:37:14","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6346176","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6346176","identity":"rs-6346176","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}