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Remote Handling Study Centre

Overview of the RHSC with the RH control room on the right
In 2011, the Remote Handling Study Centre (RHSC) located at the attic of the Rijnhuizen mansion of the FOM Institute DIFFER, opened.
 

Our mission is to deliver "Effective Remote Handling maintenance scenarios for ITER". Our activities are aligned to enable that:

1. Remote Handling maintenance scenarios for ITER
 

Validating designs for compatibility with Remote Handling (RH):

  1. Remote Handling Compatibility Assessment
  2. Tooling development
  3. Detailing procedures and logistics of RH tasks
  4. Measuring operator performance and validating procedure steps with a hardware testbed.
  5. Producing animations and time-estimates of procedures

2. Effective Remote Handling
 

Extending the state-of-the-art of RH techniques, to increase efficiency and robustness of handling, while decreasing procedure times:

  1. Implement middleware as prototype for the RH high-level control system of ITER
  2. Augmented reality: Calibrate VR models to the real world
  3. Implement physics simulator in the VR to mimick >90% of feedback to the operator 
  4. Adapt tooling design to speedup operator handling
  5. Haptic shared control: helping operators by implementing virtual guidance features (e.g. a tunnel-in-the-sky)

Example of ITER Hot Cell layout with dexterous manipulator on a Crane-Mast-Boom robot configuration and an Upper Port Plug on a rotation device.
With our complementary software, hardware, collaboration and human skills we deliver a complete set of RH knowledge to ITER system developers.

To learn more about what Remote Handling is, and why it is necessary for ITER, read the backgrounds.

Traineeships, Master thesis and Bachelor thesis @ RHSC
 

We can always provide trainee and bachelor/master thesis positions in the areas of mechnical engineering, media & CGI education and information technology. The level of education we can support is universitary, bachelor level and MBO.

The assignment will be drafted together with you and/or your education's supervisor and adapted to your level of education.

Interested? j [dot] f [dot] koning [te] rijnhuizen [dot] nl (Contact us! )

RHSC cooperations and outputs
 

Links

Media

Current and past customers
 

  • The EC-UL (Electron-Cyclotron heating Upper port Launcher) consortium, delivering four port plugs that are capable of chirurgically stabilizing the ITER plasma by transmitting 8MW of microwave power each into a dedicated spot in the plasma.
  • The EC-EL (Electron-Cyclotron heating Equatorial port Launcher) design team at JADA (Naka, Japan), delivering an equatorial port plug capable of startup and bulk heating of the ITER plasma by transmitting 24MW of microwave power into the plasma
  • The core-CXRS (Charge-eXchange Recombination Spectroscopy) consortium, delivering a diagnostic port plug which provides the only Helium ash measurement in the core of the ITER plasma, along with some 15 other ITER plasma parameters.
  • The RH section at ITER, responsible for all RH equipment and compliance of designs with their RH regulations
  • The Diagnostic division at ITER, responsible for all diagnostic systems on ITER

RHSC in the press
 

Papers in peer-reviewed journals