China has built and tested a giant robot that could carry the equivalent of 10 African elephants to perform maintenance work on future fusion reactors, bringing the country closer to its decade-long goal of building an “artificial sun”.
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The remote handling test platform, which consists of three arms, has passed expert evaluation and acceptance, according to a report on September 15 by the state-owned Science and Technology Daily.
The evaluation showed that the giant main arm of the robotic system could handle a payload of 60 tonnes with exceptional precision, achieving accurate positioning and vertical lifting to within 4mm (0.2 inch).
This payload capacity far exceeds that of the world’s largest and most complex robot systems currently deployed for hazardous tasks in the nuclear power industry.
For example, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has developed a 7-metre-long (23-foot) robotic arm for maintaining and inspecting nuclear reactor vessels, with a maximum arm tip load of 2 tonnes (4,410lbs).
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Meanwhile, the two smaller arms also offer exceptional flexibility and precision, consistently returning to a precise place with an accuracy of ±0.01mm, making the system world-class in the fusion field.
The robot is a key subsystem of the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT), nicknamed Kuafu after a mythical Chinese figure who tried to capture the sun. As one of China’s major science infrastructure projects, CRAFT is a platform on which engineers can develop and test the key components of fusion reactors.