Technology and control for hydraulic manipulators

Hydraulic manipulators are candidate for fusion reactor maintenance. Their main advantages are their large payload with respect to volume and mass, their reliability and their robustness. However, due to their force control limitations, they are disqualified for precise manipulation and are dangerous for the environment and themselves in case of unexpected collision. CEA, in collaboration with CYBERNETIX and IFREMER has developed the advanced hydraulic robot MAESTRO. Force and hybrid control has been developed in order to avoid the previous problems. Using “pressure” control servo-valve instead of the standard “flow” control servo-valve (standard configuration of the MAESTRO) makes a real simplification of the control loop. No more pressure sensors are needed for monitoring the hydraulic joint in force control mode and using this kind of valves makes big safety improvements. The French company IN-LHC, designed and manufactured a prototype of servo-valve that fits the performances and space constraints of the Maestro arm. A characterisation of this new product was made on a mock-up and a set of these prototypes integrated in the Maestro slave-arm. A comparison between the two actuating technologies was made and showed that the performances of the pressure servo-valves make it applicable to general application.