Tliere have been significant developments in the application of robotics technology to nuclear power plant maintenance problems. Thus far, robotics technology in the nuclear industry has been used primarily on spent-fuel reprocessing and waste management. Today, the industry is beginning to apply the technology to such areas as primary containment inspection, reactor maintenance, facility decontamination, and accident recovery activities. These developments suggest that the application of remotely operated devices can significantly reduce radiation exposure to personnel and improve maintenance program performance.
Currently, an operational robotic system is under development to address particular operational problems within a nuclear power plant. This device, IRIS (Industrial Remote Inspection System), is a general purpose surveillance system that conducts particular inspection and handling tasks with the goal of significantly reducing personnel exposure to high radiation fields [12]. The device is shown in Figure P10.19. The open-loop transfer function is
(a) Determine a suitable gain K for the system when T = 0.5 s, so that the overshoot to a step input is less than 30%. Determine the steady-state error, (b) Design a compensator to improve the step response for the system in part (a) so that the steady-state error is less than 12%. Assume the closed-loop system of Figure 10.1(a).
