THE PROJECT
A machine built to study heat exhaust.
DTT, the Divertor Tokamak Test, is a fusion experiment under construction at the ENEA Research Centre in Frascati. Its purpose is to study how to extract the heat produced by fusion: in a reactor the heat generated in the plasma core flows along the magnetic field in a layer a few millimetres wide down to the divertor, where the flux can reach values of the same order as the surface of the Sun. The machine is designed to be flexible, so that advanced divertor configurations and new materials, liquid metals among them, can be tested in conditions relevant to a power plant. The programme is run by the consortium company DTT S.c. a r.l.
THE CHALLENGE
Nobody goes inside the reactor.
Assembly, inspection and maintenance inside a fusion machine are done at a distance, by robots working in a confined, activated space with no direct line of sight. There is no second attempt: a wrong movement damages components that no one can reach by hand. And the operators have to be able to run those robots before the machine is ever switched on, which means learning on a reactor that does not exist yet.
HEROBOTS IN THE PROJECT
The control room of the DTT.
We developed and delivered the control room from which ENEA plans, simulates, supervises and remotely operates the robotic systems that work inside the reactor. It drives the real robot and its digital model together: every movement is validated in simulation before it is executed on the machine. From one room the operator controls four robots of two types, Hyrman 1 and Hyrman 2, CMM 1 and CMM 2, through nine software modules, with whole-body distance between robot and environment computed at more than 100 Hz.
The control room has been delivered to the DTT Remote Handling Training Facility, where the robotic systems and their procedures are tested and the operators are trained before the reactor is operational.
Collision Detection
Continuous distance computation between robots and environment.
Dynamic Simulation
Dynamic solver for long-reach, rigid and flexible robot in real time.
Virtual Reality
Immersive validation of procedures with synthetic views.
Haptic Teleoperation
Force-feedback control with intuitive operator guidance.
Motion Planning
Optimised trajectories for redundant kinematics in constrained spaces.
Safety and Diagnostics
PLC-based safety chain with monitoring of subsystems.
Procedure Planning
Structured tasks, reviewed and replayed before execution.
Data Management
Centralised acquisition, storage and traceability of operational data.
Virtual Safety
Virtual limits and protected volumes enforced before motion is executed.
PROJECT IN NUMBERS
PARTNERS / FUNDING
Client
ENEA, on behalf of DTT S.c. a r.l.
Site
DTT Remote Handling Training Facility.
DTT partners
ENEA, CNR, CREATE, CETMA, ENI, INFN, Consorzio RFX, Politecnico di Torino, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Università della Tuscia.