JPH0421157B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a refueling machine positioning device useful for refueling operations in nuclear power plants.

[Technical background of the invention]

In nuclear power plants, it is necessary to replace the fuel assemblies in the reactor with new ones or move them depending on the usage status, so a horizontally movable fuel exchange machine is installed above the reactor core. is located. This refueling machine is equipped with a vertically telescopic mast, and the refueling operation is performed by grasping and releasing the handle attached to the top of the fuel assembly using a grip attached to the tip of the mast. It is carried out with To do this, it is necessary to center the mast tip on the fuel rack in which the fuel assembly is stored, but conventionally this positioning control was based on the target coordinates and the current position from a position detector attached to the fuel exchanger. This was done by controlling the speed of the refueling machine so that the deviation from the

[Problems with background technology]

Since the target coordinates are values actually measured using a jig attached to the tip of the mast during construction, the two agree for a while after construction is completed. However, after several years of use, the mast tip becomes eccentric due to mast restoration errors during disassembly and assembly, mast distortion, etc., and a deviation occurs between the mast tip and the target coordinates during positioning. Therefore, according to the conventional method, there were problems such as the gripping tool riding on the handle of the fuel assembly during the fuel gripping and releasing operation. In addition, it is difficult to correct this eccentricity because the amount of eccentricity varies depending on the presence or absence of a fuel assembly in the mast, the mast rotation angle, etc.

For example, a technology to fine-tune a fuel exchanger using an image detector as a technology to correct eccentricity was developed in 1982.
This is shown in Publication No. 12596 and Japanese Utility Model Application No. 54-25999. However, in a reactor core where four fuel assemblies are loaded into one unit grid, each of the four fuel assemblies is in a different relative position to the upper grid plate, so the detected images are different, and these techniques cannot be used in this way. It could not be applied to a large reactor core.

Furthermore, Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-21671 discloses a positioning technique using an image detector, but the method using reference markers shown in this publication does not allow for the loading state of fuel assemblies (if the fuel assemblies are already in the core). There was a drawback that it could not be handled depending on whether the fuel assembly was loaded or not (that is, whether the fuel assembly was to be taken out or loaded).

[Purpose of the invention]

Despite the eccentricity of the mast tip, etc., the present invention
A positioning device for a refueling machine that can reliably center the tip of the mast at the target coordinates and also position the fuel assembly to be replaced regardless of the position on the core grid plate or regardless of the loading state of the fuel assembly. The purpose is to provide

[Summary of the invention]

Therefore, in the present invention, an image detector such as a television camera is attached to the mast tip of the refueling machine, and an actual image around the target coordinates detected is superimposed on a target image created and stored in advance. By driving the fuel exchanger at a slow speed so that the image deviation of It is characterized by being able to be positioned.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be described below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a refueling machine positioning device according to the present invention. It consists of a trolley truck 3 that travels in the direction. trolley cart 3
A telescope-type mast 4 that extends and contracts in the Z-axis direction is pivotally supported above, and an image detector 5 such as a CCD sensor, a television camera, and a sound wave transmitter/receiver is attached to the tip of the mast 4. Also,
A fuel assembly 6 is installed at the tip of the telescopic mast 4.
A grip 7 for gripping and releasing the handle 6A is provided.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an upper lattice plate disposed on the reactor core, and four fuel assemblies 6 are loaded in one section of this lattice plate 8.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a positioning control device for centering the mast tip at the target coordinate position where the fuel assembly 6 is to be replaced, and an analog image signal b is inputted from the image detector 5 via a signal path 10. For this signal path 10, an optical fiber, coaxial cable, radio wave path, or the like is used. Similarly, a signal a indicating the current position of the refueling machine is also input from the bridge position detector 12 and the trolley position detector 13 via the signal path 11.

The positioning control device 9 processes these signals a and b, and the resulting bogie control signal c is sent via the signal path 14 from the bogie drive signal generation circuit 15 to the bridge bogie drive motor 16 and the trolley bogie drive motor. 17.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration diagram of the positioning control device 9, which is roughly divided into two parts: a travel control section 9A and a correction control section 9B.

The travel control unit 9A receives the target coordinate position (XY) signal d from the target coordinate position setting unit 91 and the current position (X.
Y) A deviation calculation unit 92 that compares the signal a and calculates the deviation (XY)e, and a bogie control unit that outputs a signal c that controls the travel of the bridge bogie 2 and trolley bogie 3 based on the deviation (XY)e. It consists of a signal generating section 93.

The correction control section 9B includes a target coordinate position setting section 91
and a target coordinate position image creation unit 9 that outputs an image pattern f around the target coordinate position based on the output d.
4, an image processing unit 95 that processes the analog image signal b and outputs the actual image pattern g captured by the image detector 5, and superimposes these image patterns f and g and determines the target coordinate position and the telephoto position from the deviation. The overlay deviation detection section 96 outputs the deviation (XY) h of the tip of the scope type mast 4.

Note that the above target coordinate position can be set manually or automatically by registering the fuel exchange position in advance. Moreover, it goes without saying that the bogie control signal generating section 93 switches and processes the deviation (XY)e and the deviation (XY)h, and generates the bogie control signal c. Further, although the positioning control device 9 is configured in software using a microcomputer or the like, it goes without saying that it can also be configured in hardware.

With the above configuration, one cycle of fuel exchange work is performed as shown in the operational flow of FIG. 3.

A. Setting of target coordinates The target coordinate position setting unit 91 sets the position where a spent fuel assembly in the reactor core is to be replaced with a new fuel assembly as a corresponding coordinate value. for example,
In Figure 1, the position of 8A is (X2, Y1), the position of 8B is (X1, Y2), and the position of 8C is (X2,
Y2), the coordinates of the position of 8D are defined as (X1, Y1). Although the setting method is not particularly illustrated,
There are two methods: setting the exchange order using a numeric keypad or digital switch using a 3-digit decimal number, or registering the exchange order in advance in a computer and automatically setting it each time one cycle is completed.

In the following description, the target coordinates are assumed to be a story position 8A (X2, Y1), and this coordinate position 8A is assumed to be in an unloaded state where the fuel assembly 6 is not yet stored.

B. Loading state map A memory map is provided in the target coordinate position image creation unit 94 to store the loaded and unloaded states of the fuel assembly 6, and the logic is "1" if it is in the loaded state, and the logic is "0" if it is in the unloaded state. is memorized.
Therefore, when the null position 8A is set in the A section, the coordinate position 8A is determined to be "0" with reference to the memory map.

C Retrieve loading status at target coordinates Loading status bit at coordinate position 8A above = “0”
is taken out.

D. Checking the rationality of the target coordinates If the fuel assembly 6 is to be stored, the loading state at the target coordinate position must be "0", and if the fuel assembly 6 is to be taken out, it must be "1". Check their validity.

In this case, since the target coordinates are set as story coordinates, the loading status bit becomes 0, and the target setting is determined to be appropriate.

In this example, the new fuel 6 is lifted up from the pool or the fuel storage rack (not shown) using the grips 7, the mast 4, etc. and begins to be moved toward the reactor core.

E. Moving the cart to the target coordinates of the story 8A and centering As a result of the check in section D above, the map bit corresponding to the target coordinates of the story indicates that no load has been loaded, so the positioning control device 9 moves the cart to the target coordinates and performs centering control. Let's do it. The positioning up to this point is performed by the travel control section 9A shown in FIG. That is, the target coordinate position (XY) signal d from the target coordinate position setting section 91, the bridge position detector 12, and the trolley position detector 1.
3, that is, the current position of the telescope mast 4, is compared with the signal a obtained from the telescope type mast 4 in the deviation calculating section 92 to calculate the deviation (XY)e.Based on this, the bogie control signal generating section 93 controls the bridge bogie 2 and the trolley. A truck control signal c for driving and controlling the truck 3 is generated to control the running of the fuel exchanger. As a result, if there is no eccentricity in the telescopic mast 4, the mast 4 will be positioned at the coordinate position 8A and the positioning control will be completed. However, in reality, as described above, the tip of the mast 4 is not accurately positioned at the coordinate position 8A due to eccentricity. In order to correct this amount of eccentricity, the following correction operation is performed.

F Start of mast lowering/stop at 1 o'clock After the process of item E above, the mast 4 is placed at the fuel insertion angle.
After rotating, the mast begins to descend in order to insert the fuel assembly 6 into the coordinate position 8A. The mast 4 is lowered to a predetermined position and temporarily stopped to correct eccentricity.

G Image processing Image information from the image detector 5 is processed by the image processing section 9
5 converts it into a digital image pattern and stores it in memory. Based on this information, for example, the grid portion, the fuel assembly 6 portion, and the handle portion are emphasized to create an actual image pattern g. That is, in order to extract only the part used for superimposition with the target image pattern f as the actual image pattern g, only the target objects such as the lattice part, the fuel assembly 6 or its outline part are set to "1", and the others are set to "0". Processing is performed.

H Target coordinate position image generation On the other hand, the target coordinate position image creation unit 94 creates data of an image pattern f of the target coordinates (enhanced portion) corresponding to the actual image pattern g, based on the processing of the above-mentioned items B and C, It is stored in a predetermined memory area M. That is, this image pattern data is data created by determining whether or not to place the fuel assembly 6 in the grid section at the set target coordinate position according to the loading state map, and the image area obtained in the above C term, that is, the F term. This is data for positioning the target coordinates at the center of the memory area M corresponding to the field of view range of the image detector 5 at . In other words, if the actual image pattern g falls within the center of the field of view of the image detector 5, the tip of the mast 4 will be centered at the center of the target coordinates. This is the data to be located at the center of.

I Overlay and Deviation Detection The overlay deviation detection section 96 overlays the image pattern f and the actual image pattern g and detects the positional deviation between them.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, at the center of the memory area M, a contour image pattern f of the target coordinate position that has been subjected to the enhancement process is set. If there is no eccentricity in the mast 4, this image pattern f overlaps and perfectly matches the actual image pattern g. However, if the mast 4 is eccentric, the coordinate position 8A will not be located at the center of the image detector 5, and the memory area M
Only a part of the actual image pattern g is included in the actual image pattern g, and a positional shift occurs on the memory as shown in the figure. Therefore, the deviation of the X and Y axes between the image pattern f and the actual image pattern g, that is, the point α where the trolley is centered by the travel control, and the image detector 5
Calculate the eccentricity ΔX, ΔY from the actual position β of the tip of the mast 4 obtained from the memory M,
The deviation signal h is outputted to the bogie control signal generator 93. As described above, the principle of positional deviation detection in this embodiment is based on the feature extraction pattern matching method in which the features of the image are emphasized and the contours of the emphasized portions are superimposed on each other.

J Bogie slow speed control Upon completion of the processing of the above E term, the bogie control signal generating unit 93 inputs the input deviation (XY) from the deviation (XY) e.
Since it is switched to Y)h and is on standby, next time create a deviation (XY)c according to the deviation (XY)h,
The signal is output to the truck drive signal generation circuit 15 to control the truck at a slow speed.

K Completion of correction By finely adjusting the cart position in this way, if the actual image pattern g shown in FIG. 4 matches the image pattern f, the correction of the amount of eccentricity is completed.

L Story operation, loading completed If the actual image pattern g matches the image pattern f, the mast 4 is lowered again and the fuel assembly 6
is inserted at coordinate position 8A (X2, Y1). Thereafter, one cycle of loading the fuel assembly 6 is completed through landing detection and a story operation.

M Map update When one cycle is completed, the bit corresponding to (X2, Y1) in the loading status map is updated from "0" to "1" and the next cycle is started.

The above description has been about the case where the new fuel assembly 6 is taken out from a fuel storage pool (not shown) and loaded into an unloaded coordinate position, but the spent fuel assembly 6 is taken out from the loading coordinate position and loaded into the spent fuel storage pool. It goes without saying that the control when moving to 2 is carried out in the same way.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, a target image pattern corresponding to the actual image pattern is created from the target coordinate position signal and the loading state map, and the target image pattern and the actual image pattern are superimposed to take the deviation, and the position of the refueling machine is determined. Fine adjustment is performed, so even if eccentricity occurs in the mast due to aging, etc., the eccentricity is corrected reliably, and no matter where the fuel assembly to be replaced is located on the core grid plate, the fuel The mast tip can be accurately positioned at the target coordinate position regardless of the loading state of the assembly. As a result, the fuel exchange operation can be carried out safely and reliably, and the time required for the exchange operation can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a fuel exchanger positioning device showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the positioning control device, FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining its operation, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the eccentricity correction control. 1... Reactor containment vessel, 2... Bridge truck,
3... Trolley truck, 4... Telescope mast, 5... Image detector, 6... Fuel assembly, 7...
...Gripper, 8...Grid plate, 9...Positioning control device, 9A...Traveling control section, 9B...Correction control section, 10, 11, 14...Signal path, 12...Bridge truck position detector, 13... Trolley bogie position detector, 15... Bogie drive signal generation circuit, 16...
...Motor for driving the bridge cart, 17...Motor for driving the trolley cart, 91...Target coordinate position setting section, 92...Deviation calculation section, 93...Bolly control signal generation section, 94...Target coordinate position image creation section , 95
...Image processing unit, 96...Overlay deviation detection unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a positioning device for a refueling machine that positions the tip of a refueling mast of a refueling machine that is movable horizontally above the reactor core at target coordinates,
An image detector is attached to the tip of the mast, and the output from this image detector is digitally processed to emphasize the upper grid plate, fuel assembly, etc., and create an actual image pattern of only the parts necessary for superimposition. means, a target coordinate position setting means for outputting a target coordinate position signal indicating the target coordinates, and a loading state map storing the target coordinate position signal and the loading state of the fuel assembly to correspond to the actual image pattern. means for creating a target image pattern, and setting the target image pattern in a memory so that it is located at the center of the field of view of the image detector, and superimposing the target image pattern on the actual image pattern obtained from the image detector at that position; 1. A positioning device for a fuel exchanger, comprising means for extracting the deviation, and means for finely adjusting the position of the fuel exchanger according to the positional deviation and positioning the mast tip at a target coordinate position.