Graphical Simulation for Design of a Tele-Operated Clinker Clearing Robot

Clinkers are waste material in the bottom ash hopper of furnaces of lignite fired power plants. Workers are requierd to wear cubersome, hot suits and manipulate a long heavy steel rod connected to an air hammer to clear clinkers. A tele-operated maintenance robot has been designed to perform the dangerous clinker clearing operation. This paper describes the three dimensional modelling and graphical simulation for design of tele-operated clinker clearing robot. Graphical simulaton provided valuable analysis at the design stage of the robot. The robot has to be operated in a constrained work environment, and the design of the robot has been improved and verified by analyzing interference and workspace with three dimensional CAD models.