Telerobotic task planner with application to D&D pipe cutting

Task planning is a key component necessary to implement telerobotic systems in remote operations for the deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of defunct nuclear facilities. In this thesis, a task planning software module for a telerobotic D&D system is presented. This software helps the operator to visually create a plan for a dismantlement task so that the control component can then interpret the task plan file and execute the plan. The graphical user interface allows the operator to plan a set of tasks efficiently. This software also calculates the manipulator's end-effector orientation and position at approach points, cut points and final points through appropriate kinematics transformations and saves the data to a task plan file. With this software, the D&D telerobotic system works as an integrated system with real-time multi-mode operation. It is believed that this task planning concept will be applicable to other application domains.