Waste Barrel Inspection
The US Department of Energy maintains warehouses of waste filled barrels that must be routinely inspected. A robotic inspection system is desired to reduce the possible risks to employees. The robotic system should be capable of performing inspection tasks that can replace the visual and dexterous operations that a human operator would use to evaluate the condition of a drum. As a subpart of the overall project, a manipulator arm is required to perform such tasks as wipe sampling, bar-code reading. moving a small camera for up-close inspection of limited areas and scratching blistered paint to assess underlying barrel state.
Phase I of this project was to develop
specifications and demonstrate possible features for the system to
be built in Phase
II. The following was accomplished: