The European Home Team of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) concluded that an air cushion vehicle system is an appropriate method for transporting components from the Tokamak Building to the Hot-Cell Building within ITER. It remains, however, to demonstrate that the operational safety of such systems is acceptable by the ITER. This project has a two-fold objective: study of the geometric feasibility of the flexible cask transportation system, taking into account the vehicles kinematics and the selection of a navigation strategy for a flexible vehicle, able to act as an Automated Guided Vehicle and as a Free Roaming Vehicle.
The geometric feasibility studies include planning smooth paths, based on analytical methods, to increase safety, the discussion of building constraints by the evaluation of the vehicle spanned areas when following a planned path, the trade-offs between the spanned area and the distance between drive wheels and the analysis of the clearance required to remove the platform from underneath the cask in different failure situations.
In what concerns navigation, a strategy aiming at providing both guidance along a physical path and a virtual path will be defined.