Manipulator Operated Laser Ablation (MANOLA)

MANOLA is a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Within the research project MANOLA a manipulator system has been developed which offers significant advantages in terms of AMANDA during locomotion on the surface. MANOLA was equipped with a rotary drive to avoid obstacles. The climbing robot can thus work flexibly and sensitively with complex spatial conditions.
To deploy the manipulator at the wall, and later again to remove it from the wall, it is absolutely necessary to provide a trolley for flexible mobile use of the entire system. To navigate on uneven terrain, drives with rubber tracks were chosen for the transport system. Both chains are driven by a powerful electric motor. Like the manipulator system, the transport trolley was equipped with pneumatic cylinders. Thus, no additional media, that may need to be expensively disposed after use, was brought into the plant.
The carrier system MANOLA is currently designed to carry a laser working head which was developed by the Technical University of Dresden, Institute for Energy Technology (WKET). The externally generated laser beam is directed at the radioactively contaminated concrete surface via a special lens, creating a melt pool with a rectangular profile of approximately 45 x 10 mm. Ejectors and blow-off nozzles ensure that the resulting melt is withdrawn from the solid concrete structure.

      
Climbing Robot MANOLA Trolley Laser Processing Head (Source: TU-Dresden / WKET)