A tokamak is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being developed to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power. As of 2016, it was the leading candidate for a practical fusion reactor.
This timeline of nuclear fusion is an incomplete chronological summary of significant events in the study and use of nuclear fusion.
The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational magnetically confined plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, UK. Based on a tokamak design, the fusion research facility is a joint European project with a main purpose of opening the way to future nuclear fusion grid energy. At the time of its design JET was larger than any comparable machine.
ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process similar to that of the Sun. Upon completion of construction of the main reactor and first plasma, planned for late 2025, it will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor. It is being built next to the Cadarache facility in southern France. ITER will be the largest of more than 100 fusion reactors built since the 1950s, with ten times the plasma volume of any other tokamak operating today.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle is a tethered underwater mobile device, also commonly called an underwater robot.
Telerobotics is the area of robotics concerned with the control of semi-autonomous robots from a distance, chiefly using television, wireless networks or tethered connections. It is a combination of two major subfields, which are teleoperation and telepresence.
The Mobile Servicing System (MSS), is a robotic system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Launched to the ISS in 2001, it plays a key role in station assembly and maintenance; it moves equipment and supplies around the station, supports astronauts working in space, and services instruments and other payloads attached to the ISS and is used for external maintenance. Astronauts receive specialized training to enable them to perform these functions with the various systems of the MSS.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Teleoperation indicates operation of a system or machine at a distance. It is similar in meaning to the phrase "remote control" but is usually encountered in research, academia and technology. It is most commonly associated with robotics and mobile robots but can be applied to a whole range of circumstances in which a device or machine is operated by a person from a distance.
An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground and without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it may be inconvenient, dangerous, or impossible to have a human operator present. Generally, the vehicle will have a set of sensors to observe the environment, and will either autonomously make decisions about its behavior or pass the information to a human operator at a different location who will control the vehicle through teleoperation.
The Scorpio is a brand of underwater submersible Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) manufactured by Perry Tritech used by sub-sea industries such as the oil industry for general operations, and by the Royal Navy and the United States Navy for submarine rescue services. Originally developed by AMETEK Straza of El Cajon, United States, they were subsequently developed by Perry Tritech. Although the design of the original Scorpio is over several decades old, it forms the basis for a current generation of Scorpio-branded ROVs. Scorpio ROVs are named in a sequence following the order of manufacture, such as "Scorpio 17" or "Scorpio 45" which refer to specific ROVs.
Subsea technology involves fully submerged ocean equipment, operations, or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term subsea is frequently used in connection with oceanography, marine or ocean engineering, ocean exploration, remotely operated vehicle (ROVs) autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), submarine communications or power cables, seafloor mineral mining, oil and gas, and offshore wind power.
The United States Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) (formerly United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC)), located in Warren, Michigan, is the United States Armed Forces' research and development facility for advanced technology in ground systems. It is part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command. GVSC shares its facilities with the United States Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM). Current technology focus areas include Ground Vehicle Power and Mobility (GVPM), Ground System Survivability and Force Protection, among others.
Squad Mission Support System is an unmanned all terrain wheeled vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin.
Cegelec or Actemium is a French engineering company specialized in electrical infrastructure, HVAC, information technology, nuclear energy development, transport infrastructure, robotics and offering both public and private services. Cegelec was officially formed in 1989, and as of 2014 the company employs around 22,000 people and operates in 30 countries, with major activity in France, Brazil, Indonesia, the Middle East and Africa. It was acquired by Vinci Energies on 14 April 2010, assimilating the collection of Cegelec's sub-companies, which each specialize in a specific field or geographical region, into Vinci's corporate system.
The Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) is the UK's national laboratory for fusion research. It is located at the Culham Science Centre, near Culham, Oxfordshire, and is the site of the Joint European Torus (JET), Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) and the now closed Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak (START).
Adaptive collaborative control is the decision-making approach used in hybrid models consisting of finite-state machines with functional models as subcomponents to simulate behavior of systems formed through the partnerships of multiple agents for the execution of tasks and the development of work products. The term “collaborative control” originated from work developed in the late 1990s and early 2000 by Fong, Thorpe, and Baur (1999). It is important to note that according to Fong et al. in order for robots to function in collaborative control, they must be self-reliant, aware, and adaptive. In literature, the adjective “adaptive” is not always shown but is noted in the official sense as it is an important element of collaborative control. The adaptation of traditional applications of control theory in teleoperations sought initially to reduce the sovereignty of “humans as controllers/robots as tools” and had humans and robots working as peers, collaborating to perform tasks and to achieve common goals. Early implementations of adaptive collaborative control centered on vehicle teleoperation. Recent uses of adaptive collaborative control cover training, analysis, and engineering applications in teleoperations between humans and multiple robots, multiple robots collaborating among themselves, unmanned vehicle control, and fault tolerant controller design.
In nuclear fusion power research, the plasma-facing material (PFM) is any material used to construct the plasma-facing components (PFC), those components exposed to the plasma within which nuclear fusion occurs, and particularly the material used for the lining the first wall or divertor region of the reactor vessel.
PAR Systems, Inc, is a systems engineering firm headquartered in Shoreview, Minnesota, specializing in automated manufacturing and material handling equipment. Subsidiaries include Jered LLC, specializing in marine equipment and cargo handling systems; Ederer LLC, specializing in custom and specialty cranes and associated equipment; CAMotion, specializing in advanced motion control and Cartesian palletizers and Oak River Technology, specializing in automated manufacturing, testing equipment and medical device manufacturing equipment. PAR systems specializes in engineering equipment for the nuclear field, designing equipment for nuclear industry hot cells, process facilities and decommissioning applications in Japan, UK and United States. In the aerospace industry, PAR specializes in precision cutting, trimming, drilling, coating, scanning and non-destructive testing equipment PAR Systems has quality certifications in ISO9001, AS9100, ISO13485 and ASME NQA-1 compliant.
Built Robotics Inc. is a San Francisco, California, US-based vehicular automation startup that develops software and hardware to automate construction equipment. The company was founded in San Francisco in 2016 by Noah Ready-Campbell and Andrew Liang. The company’s primary product is the “Exosystem,” an aftermarket kit that adds autonomous robotic capabilities onto existing heavy equipment through a combination of GPS, camera, and artificial intelligence technology.
