Articulated Inspection Arm
With the Articulated Inspection Arm (AIA) developed at IRFM, commissioned and deployed on EAST, the IRFM-ASIPP team succeeded in Plasma facing components (PFCs) remote inspection in real tokamak environment during EAST experiment operation without breaking ultra-high vacuum and temperature conditioning. Researchers of both sides have worked closely on this project, and overcome many key technical difficulties, including collision avoidance control of a redundant robot, visual observation under harsh conditions, etc.
In addition, EAST Articulated Maintenance Arm (EAMA) has been updated from IRFM-AIA. EAMA is capable of monitoring in-vessel components and grabbing graphite tile at different places of the vessel, and has completed the in-situ calibration experiment for neutron flux diagnostic system inside EAST machine.
