EPSON Robots introduces New EPSON G1 Mini SCARA Robots

Carson, CA – EPSON Robots introduces the new EPSON G1 Mini SCARA Robots. Leading the industry with best in class cycle rates, precision assembly and motion range, EPSON G1 robots provide an ultra compact yet powerful solution for even the most demanding applications.

G1 Mini SCARA robots are available in arm reaches of 175 or 225mm. They are also available in Clean & ESD compliant configurations. G1 robots lead the industry in footprint to workspace ratios. 225mm G1 robot arms can handle many applications with large working range requirements that other robots need 250mm of reach to handle, thus saving our customers valuable floor space.

Unique to the G1 Mini SCARA robots is that both 3 and 4 axis models are available. The new 3-axis models allow for superior performance for press fit screw tightening and linear dispensing applications. Designed for maximum performance in a small footprint, G1 robots are the most powerful and compact mini SCARAs available in the market today.

Our low cost, high performance Micro PowerDrive RC180 Controller comes standard with EPSON G1 Mini SCARA robots and provides the ultimate experience in ease of use, compact size, and reliability. In addition to all of these great features, the RC180 controller also provides our industry leading EPSON RC+ Controls software and lots of fully integrated options such as: Vision Guidance, .Net support, Profibus, DeviceNet, EtherNet/IP and much more. All this at an incredibly low price! Why choose a low performance solution when you can have a high performance EPSON G1 with Micro PowerDrive Controller?

With the addition of G1 Mini SCARA robots, EPSON now offers 200+ G-Series SCARA robots, ranging from 175mm to 1,000mm in reach and up to 20Kg payloads. EPSON G1 robots are ideally suited for applications and industries which require high precision assembly of small components, demanding cycle times and compact production lines. Chances are that EPSON has the model and configuration you need for your next application since our G-Series lineup now gives customers more power of choice than ever before.

EPSON Robots
www.robots.epson.com

MIT Commissions Special Touchy-Feely Robot Skin To Be Made

Peratech Limited has been commissioned by the MIT Media Lab to develop a new type of electronic ’skin’ that enables robotic devices to detect not only that they have been touched but also where and how hard the touch was.

The key to the sensing technology is Peratech’s patented ‘QTC’ materials. QTC’s, or Quantum Tunnelling Composites, are a unique new material type which provides a measured response to force and/or touch by changing its electrical resistance – much as a dimmer light switch controls a light bulb. This enables a simple electronic circuit within the robot to determine touch. Being easily formed into unique shapes – including being ‘draped’ over an object much like a garment might, QTC’s provide a metaphor for how human skin works to detect touch.

Uniquely, QTC’s provide a ‘proportional’ response – in other words detecting ‘how hard’ they have been touched. Further, using Peratech’s patented xy scanning technology, the robot is able to detect where on a matrix of sensors applied to areas such as the forearms, shoulders and torso, it has been touched.
As robotic devices continue to make inroads to our daily life, their ability to understand the presence and interaction with humans and other objects within a space becomes critically important. This research project is hoped to produce results which could soon be applied to a range of robotics projects that MIT works upon.

Peratech’s QTC technology has an established track record for use in robotics, having previously been adopted by NASA for their Robonaut device and by Shadow Robot in the UK, producers of what is widely regarded as the World’s most advanced robotic hand, which have utilised QTC to sense ‘touch’. However, this project with MIT is a World first in enabling a human to interact – through touch across the body of a robot – much as they would with another human.

Maxon Announces Strategic Collaboration with National Instruments

Maxon Precision Motors is pleased to announce a strategic collaboration with National Instruments (Austin, TX). The initiative will look to highlight mutual areas of interest in the field of robotics. An informal relationship between the two companies was initiated as early as 2006, with the inclusion of NI LabVIEW VIs in Maxon’s EPOS family of digital position and speed controllers. Most recently the two companies collaborated on the design and development of ViNI , an all inclusive robotics platform created by engineers at National Instruments. ViNI is driven exclusively by Maxon motors, gearheads and encoders and NI CompactRIO embedded controls.

“NI and Maxon have worked together to integrate the high productivity of NI LabVIEW graphical software and the high-precision drive systems of Maxon Motors so roboticists don’t have to assume the integration workload,” said Shelley Gretlein, Senior Group Manager of LabVIEW Real-Time & Embedded at National Instruments. “Also, with the release of LabVIEW Robotics software, design engineers now can access native Maxon Motor interfaces ready-to-run on their next autonomous system.”

Other notable robotic applications driven by Maxon motion control products include the Mars “Rover” by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Da Vinci” surgical robot by Intuitive Surgical and “DARwin” the humanoid robot developed at RoMeLa, the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech University.

Both Maxon and National Instruments recognize that advancements in each respective area of expertise are complementary and look to provide designers with state-of-the-art hardware and software solutions for developing new robotic products and applications. Several joint marketing efforts are slated for 2010. Maxon will continue to focus its R&D efforts on electric motors, sensors and motion controllers while National Instruments will leverage its LabVIEW platform, NI LabVIEW NI SoftMotion Module, and CompactRIO.

“It is an exciting time to be involved in the robotics industry. Over the years Maxon has directed a significant portion of our engineering efforts toward the development of specialized products for robotic applications, and we are just beginning to realize the benefits of our investment. We are pleased to be working with NI and their talented group of engineers”, states Kirk Barker, Electronics Product Manager.

CompactRIO, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com and SoftMotion are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

National Instruments
www.ni.com

maxon motor
www.maxonmotorusa.com

NASA Reveals Robot Astronaut: Robonaut 2

NASA is turning to robotics to help their astronauts while in space.  NASA scientists have developed a new dexterous humanoid robot which can work side by side with humans

Robonaut2, or R2, is the next generation dexterous robot that uses the same tools as humans, allowing it to work safely along with people, a necessity both on earth and in space. The machines are faster and can use their hands to do work beyond the scope of prior humanoid machines.

R2, the next iteration of Robonaut, could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions using leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies.

Working side by side with humans, or going where the risks are too great for people, machines like Robonaut will expand our capability for construction and discovery.

According to NASA, the robots were developed with General Motors through a Space Act Agreement to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies.

DASH, The Robotic Cockroach, To Save Lives In Haiti

UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering is developing mini-robots to help locate earthquake survivors easily, cheaply, and quickly, and without jeopardizing the lives of rescuers.

First Robotic Radical Cystectomy Deemed a Success

The first first robotic radical cystectomy, a surgical procedure to treat invasive cancer of the bladder, was recently performed at Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta. Dr. Rajesh Laungani, Director of Robotic Urology at Saint Joseph’s, performed the minimally-invasive surgery.

Invasive bladder cancer has a very high mortality rate and generally results in death if not treated. During a radical cystectomy, the entire bladder (and prostate, if the patient is male) is removed. According to Laungani, performing this robotically allows for a minimally invasive approach. The advantages include less blood loss, less pain, and quicker recovery. Just as importantly, it provides comparable rates of cancer cure as compared to more traditional surgery.

In 2004, Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta was designated as the exclusive training center in the Southeastern United States (Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi) for robotic surgical systems. Since that time, Saint Joseph’s has become the world-wide site for surgeons to train on robotics.

www.stjosephsatlanta.org

Innovation and Growth in Robotics

The robot industry has gone through some interesting changes over the years.  Most of the companies that were involved in the start of the real robot revolution are gone, unable to meet the extraordinary cost reductions that were sure tocome in order to make robots cost effective in most industries.  The biggest lesson, in my opinion, was the idea that robots had to be narrowly defined in terms of their application.   There was a time where there were only a few companies with the control technology to be able to make the multi-axis coordination work correctly.  So every application had to be programmed from scratch and the learning curve was huge.

The fact is that a welding robot is nothing like a Cartesian robot for electronic assembly.  And part of the learning curve of the industry was understanding what applications to focus on.  This first big reality set in when many companies began to compete for welding applications because the automotive market  opportunity was huge.  And just figuring out one application was a big enough task that it consumed most of the development resources available in  companies like GE and ABB robotics.

Consider the huge learning curve that has taken place in 35 years.  Medical robots have matured to the point where orthopedic surgery by a robot is faster and more precise than the best surgeons.  Researching the human genome would have been impossible without the high speed sample management systems of bio-assay robots.  And autonomous robots have searched the inside of volcanoes, taken samples on the moon and roamed and photographed Mars.  Pretty impressive.

Consider the forecast for the future of robotics. Motors and controls have become incredibly sophisticated and costs have dropped dramatically.   Computing power has increased to the point where memory and processing costs are almost trivial.  The First Robotics Competition is bringing 150,000 school children into the field of robotics through its programs with schools all over the US.  And the knowledge base and experience is so pervasive that we have Lego making teaching systems for grade school children to begin to get exposure to robotics.

Among the amazing developments, Barrett Technology has an anthropomorphic arm and “hand” gripper that is designed to low force, low power consumption and safe enough to be in proximity to humans.  The Robots and Mechanisms Lab at Virginia Polytechnic has demonstrated many new solutions to common problems of robot locomotion culminating in the Darwin soccer playing robot that operates autonomously.  Their goal?  Team Darwin wants to be able to compete with human soccer players by the year 2050.

With this kind of innovation, the future of robotics is going to be great.

Step Motor Helps Robot Capture Images in 3D

Michael Comberiate, who manages the Special Projects Initiatives at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and his team of graduate and undergraduate engineering students build robotic vehicles that are used to test flight avionics, instruments, communications protocols, and approaches for planetary exploration. One project involves developing new communication protocols suitable for the delays encountered in space travel. This research involves the transmission of commands and images between the flight center on Earth and exploratory vehicles roaming various planets. The team works with a robot named Nanook that is outfitted with an imaging system that uses a step motor to help it collect data for 3D images. If Comberiate’s research proves successful, the communication protocols will be used in projects like the Mars Rover explorations, but they could also help solve communication problems here on Earth.

The robotic mothership undergoes testing in Anartica and Alaska while being operational from Maryland.  The current test system runs around $30,000 while the final rover that will be sent to Mars can exceed $100 million.

The Internet, for example, is not suited to a transmission delay of more than 3 seconds. When sending data from say Mars, line of sight transmission can still experience delays of five to ten minutes. Without line of sight, the delay is even longer, often hours.

When a communication protocol experiences a transmission delay, the usual procedure is to try to send the transmission again, from the beginning. This process is not suitable for planetary exploration, thus, the need for a new communication protocol that can handle long delays.

In their research, Comberiate and his team developed a robot that is being tested at the arctic and that could wind up in the Mars Rover mission. Communicating between their offices in Maryland and the robot at the South Pole is similar to communicating to a roving robot on Mars. The engineers experience satellite synchronization issues with volumes of data as the robot takes digital dot-matrix pictures of objects it finds, similar to what they will experience when transmitting with equipment on another planet. The images are sent to the engineers, who then decide what objects require a closer look. Dot matrix is used because it will transmit faster than a digital camera image.

The robot uses laser-based guidance known as LADAR (Laser Detection and Ranging) to find and take images of objects. It is semi-autonomous and has 3D scanning capability with image stitching.

The laser has a spinning mirror inside that sweeps the beam from left to right, measuring the time it takes to return a pulsed beam of infrared light from an object. The mirror spins four times on each horizontal line and then a step motor raises it up ¼ of a degree in the vertical axis. The laser spins again along the horizontal line, building the image one line at a time. “We scan with a ¼ degree of accuracy left and right, and ¼ degree of accuracy up and down,” noted Comberiate, “which gives us a 3D image. The colors show a low resolution of the distance to every point in the scan, but the computer onboard has about 1000 times more data than shown in the images. These images convey the critical information to the operators on Earth, but take 1000 times less time to send than a typical photograph.”

The 3D scanning provided by the mothership brings back images that show depth of field plus azimuth plus elevation.  The different colors shown in the images depict varying distances from the mothership.

Previous imaging systems could not deliver the needed resolution and the pictures displayed considerable distortion. “We chose the Lin Engineering step motor because it could handle the arctic conditions of -40 below 0 and still deliver smooth motion and hold position,” said Comberiate. “It gives us excellent remote control over the size of each step.”

In the rugged environments, the robot must operate off batteries. “We direct the heat from the electronics to where it is needed throughout the robot and to the batteries to keep them warm. Any motor we choose must be able to handle such environmental conditions.” Comberiate and his team will be continuing their research at the arctic in January 2010.

Discuss this on the Engineering Exchange:

Lin Engineering
www.linengineering.com

Humanoid Robot Will Teach Software Classes

Classrooms in Japan may soon welcome a new 4-foot-tall educational humanoid robot unveiled byNippon INstitute of Technology and other groups.

It will be used to teach software programming and hardware engineering to students, but will also be demonstrated in elementary schools and nursing homes. It will act as a “teacher” in class along with a human teacher.

As explained in Japanese in the video below, the kid-size bot doesn’t have a name yet. With its boyish voice, the robot can be heard asking people to give it a “cool name.” It then does some dancing and balancing on one leg.

But some details are available. It tips the scales at 33 pounds and has 21 degrees of mechanical freedom. It’s equipped with sensing devices including a camera, accelerometers, and gyroscopes, and has a small projector in its head. It can be programmed with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio.

The price tag is about $132,000, according to Robot Watch.

Its body was engineered by Tokyo robot firm ZMP, known for its small but stylish Nuvo bot. The underlying e-nuvo Humanoid platform is intended for education and research, and is priced around $77,000. The exterior was designed by Znug Design studio.

“Shady” Robot Climbs Windows, Blocks Shade

When you’re an MIT researcher and your laboratory’s windows let in too much sunlight, obviously the only thing to do is to build a robot to solve your problem. Whence Shady, a window-climbing robot that unfurls a shade to block sunlight and glare.

If you’ve ever visited MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial intelligence Lab, you’ll know the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center has some seriously strange architectural features. Among these are huge floor-to-ceiling windows installed on an incline and shiny metal roofing. Researchers in Daniela Rus’s laboratory became annoyed at the sunlight reflecting off the roof and creating glare on their computer monitors throughout the afternoon. When they discovered that blinds for the custom windows were prohibitively expensive, they turned to what they knew best: robots.

Shady is a relatively simple robot that communicates with an operator computer via Bluetooth. Right now, there’s not much that’s autonomous about Shady, so the operator clicks on a graphic representation of the windows and Shady heads over to it. It uses grippers to grip the framing between windows and swings itself up and over to where it needs to be. Once it’s reached its destination, it unfurls a piece of reflective material that shades the operator from direct sunlight or bad glare off the roof.

Shady itself is pretty whimsical, but the locomotion via rotating gripper is really interesting. The developers pointed out that this “truss-climbing” method of getting around is useful on things like scaffolding, or power line towers which need to be inspected and painted. I love what can come out of solving a simple problem.

web.mit.edu

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