Development of an image recognition system for RFX first wall maintenance

Since the beginning of the machine operation a remote handling system (RHS) has been used to carry out maintenance tasks inside the RFX vacuum vessel, such as tile replacement, first wall inspection and graphite fragment removal. In order to speed up the tile replacement operations and to increase their reliability and safety, it was envisaged to develop a monoscopic vision system capable of recognizing the tile clamping system components on which the end-effector must act to dismount/mount the tiles. The vision system has now been realized and it is described in the paper along with end-effector modifications and executed tests.