The use of virtual prototyping and simulation in ITER maintenance device development

Virtual prototyping technology has become a very valued tool in the early phases of product design. The use of virtual technologies is of special interest in the development of the ITER maintenance devices, mainly due to the large costs, sizes and complexity of physical prototypes. This paper shows how virtual prototypes are built and implemented in simulation tools, which are then used to develop the design of the maintenance equipment. Two applications are presented. The first case concerns the controllability of the water-hydraulics servo-actuators of the cassette mover. In the second application, a bilateral teleoperation architecture is designed to remotely control a robot manipulator. The resulting designs are going to be transferred, in a later phase, to a full-scale prototype facility (Divertor Test Platform 2). (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.