Design of a remote-operated underwater vehicle for visual inspection of research nuclear reactors

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (technically ROUV but commonly just ROV) is a tied underwater mobile device. This paper deals with the development of a remotely controlled submersible robot (ROV) which can be used for inspection or problem identification in submerged equipment and/or pipelines. The focus here is the visual inspection of submerged nuclear reactors during the fuel elements exchange, visualization of research reactor core, and spent fuel pool. Such an approach is necessary due to the fact that currently, robots are responsible for various tasks. Robots responsible for inspections, although not new, are highly specialized equipment. The development of a submersible robot that can adapt to various environments, and at low cost, would be a plus in this growing role. This intent was obtained by researching concepts such as density, buoyancy, ROV, direct current motors, control systems, terms such as radiation and radioactivity, and its interactions with electronic components. The parameters defined by the NBR-16244 standard were also observed, although it does not contain specific concepts for inspection in environments such as nuclear reactors. It is used as a basis for visual inspection in submerged environments. These concepts were allied to the use of programs such as SolidWorks® for hydrostatic modelling and project simulation. Simulations with different parameters were performed.