ISSUE 1 OCTOBER 2017
R O B OT I C S
P R O F E S S I O N A L
IT HAS ARRIVED
A NEW VOICE IN THE ROBOTICS SECTOR
ROBOT:
FRIEND OR FOE? THE INDUSTRY’S PR CHALLENGE
WORLD’S FIRST DEDICATED EQUITY PLATFORM FOR HIGH POTENTIAL ROBOT COMPANIES
R&D TAX CREDITS – ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH AND IF NOT, WHY NOT?
THE BUSINESS OF PRECISION ROBOTICS, COLL ABORATIVE ROBOTS AND NEXT GENERATION AUTOMATION
A NEW GENERATION OF PROSTHETICS
PRECISION DRIVES POWER A NEW GENERATION OF PROSTHETICS
Rehabilitation Robotics and a new generation of smooth, silent drives are helping the physically challenged walk and run effortlessly. By Michael ImObersteg, Director Convergence Promotions Robotic Drives SYNOPSIS Worldwide, 3-4 million people are living today with debilitating limb loss. In the United States alone, there are 4.7 million people who would benefit from an active lower limb orthosis due to the effects of stroke, polio, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy. Recent innovations in a new field called Rehabilitation Robotics are helping people all over the world overcome their disabilities. Rehabilitation Robotics is a field dedicated to understanding and augmenting rehabilitation through the application of robotic devices. This article will illustrate how a mechanical element of the robotics, a break-through motor designed for this type of application, is helping to revolutionize the prosthetic limb.
A major goal of prosthetic design is to closely resemble a human leg, so it is essential to keep the mechanics as compact as possible (the Rotor and Stator of the smallest TQ RoboDrive is an incredibly tiny 25m). TQ Group has designed these motors with a hollow shaft so that wires, fluids, and other media can pass through the inside of the motor. By eliminating bulky outside wire or cable routing, this feature helps designers reach their goal of casting a natural outward appearance of a real leg.
ROBODRIVE - A NEW LIGHTWEIGHT, PRECISION, HIGH-TORQUE SOLUTION FOR ROBOTICS Challenges faced by the robotic community in the field of prosthetics are seen in other physical human-robot interaction (PHRI) and include power, size, weight, and safety. Also, motors that drive prosthetics have to be smooth, silent and precise.
NEW PARADIGM IN PRECISION AND POWER Prosthetic designers can control RoboDrive motors to stop at up to 6.3 million increments for extreme positioning accuracy in position control leg movement, providing a quick, smooth, continuous operation or gait, and the incredible torque produces power to spare.
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A comparison of TQ’s RoboDrive motors with the best commercially available motors show TQ’s RoboDrive motors provide the same torque at half the size and weight, dissipating only half of the losses (performance curve on the left).
RoboDrive technology provides the highest power density at maximum torque range and overload capability in a compact design, providing: ■ High Dynamics ■ Alternative voltage levels ■ Increased speeds ■ Customized torque adaptations ■ O ptional hollow shaft motors allow designers to run fluids, cables or lasers through the center of the motor--providing maximum functionality with minimal footprint.
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A NEW GENERATION OF PROSTHETICS
SUMMARY The future goal of prosthetics and exoskeletons is to provide relief for more than just people suffering from limb loss—the elderly will benefit as well. Today, almost 20% of the world population is over 65, and this figure is predicted to exceed 35% by 2050. This demographic shift will impose an enormous burden of care required to treat the elderly, and robotic solutions will enable them to regain their independence and maintain an enriching, fulfilling lifestyle. In the future, the ability to replace entire limbs with prosthetics will be used everywhere. Not only will these prosthetics be a replication of the wearer’s biological functions, but they will also cast a natural outward appearance and require minimal upkeep. To accomplish these future goals, new technology including motors, sensors, microprocessors, actuators, drivers and the HMI interface have to be continuously developed and improved. Continuing the progress of prosthetic technology calls for funding from organizations willing to provide resources, and Convergence Promotions is helping to lead the movement to accelerate the prosthetics of the future.
THE REHABILITATION ROBOTICS INITIATIVE Led by Michael ImObersteg and Convergence Promotions, the goal of this initiative is to provide motors, documentation, and engineering support to research institutions, companies, and universities developing robotic prosthetics. We are currently working with half a dozen Universities on this program, and we expect the participation to expand rapidly in 2018 as the interest in providing robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons grows.
Contact Michael at (925) 640-7042, or michael@ convergencepromotions.com. For more information on RoboDrive: www.roboticdrives.com
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A MAJOR GOAL OF PROSTHETIC DESIGN IS TO CLOSELY RESEMBLE A HUMAN LEG, SO IT IS ESSENTIAL TO KEEP THE MECHANICS AS COMPACT AS POSSIBLE
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Powered by Convergence Promotions
www.roboticdrives.com
Advanced Robotic Solutions RoboDrive technology provides the highest power density at maximum torque range and overload capability in a compact design. These exceptional performance characteristics make RoboDrive the ideal choice for medical, robotic and aerospace applications. The variable concept offers solutions for a variety of demanding drive applications, including: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
High Dynamics Alternative voltage levels Increased speeds Customized torque adaptations Select from a variety of sizes, from small (25mm) to large (115mm) Available as rotor and stator kits for design-ins, or in housings. Optional hollow shaft motors allow designers to run fluids, cables or lasers through the center of the motor--providing maximum functionality with minimal footprint.
For more information about TQ RoboDrive: www.roboticdrives.com. Director: Michael ImObersteg Michael@convergencepromotions.com (925) 640-7042
A CLOSE LOOK AT VISION ROBOTICS
A CLOSE LOOK AT VISION GUIDED ROBOTICS (VGR) How complex automation challenges are being met through the marriage of robotics and advanced machine vision. By Geralyn Miller of Teledyne DALSA. We’ve all seen videos of robots rapidly assembling cars with little or no human intervention. Industrial robots like these have cut costs and increased productivity in virtually every manufacturing sector, but they have a major shortcoming—they can’t “see.” Programmed to repeat exactly the same motions over and over again, they are unable to detect and maneuver objects of different shapes, sizes, and colors, or objects that touch and overlap. So if a product changes or is added to the production line, the robots must be reprogrammed. And if product components are delivered to the line by traditional hoppers and shake tables, bowl feeders must be retooled.
COPING WITH CHAOS Now a new generation of robots guided by advanced machine vision is taking robots far beyond the repetitive tasks typically found in mass production. Fuelled by smaller, more powerful and less expensive cameras and other vision sensors, increasingly sophisticated robotic algorithms and processors with machine vision-specific hardware accelerators, these Vision Guided Robot (VGR) systems are rapidly transforming manufacturing and fulfillment processes. VGR makes robots highly adaptable and much easier to implement for industries in which new products are introduced frequently and production runs are short—including medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing, food packaging, agricultural applications, life sciences and more. [1] For example, a leading global automotive manufacturer operating a high-volume plant in China uses a GEVA 1000
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SYSTEMS LIKE THIS LEND THEMSELVES TO ENVIRONMENTS WHERE CLUTTER IS UNAVOIDABLE OR TOO EXPENSIVE TO ELIMINATE, OR LINE SPEEDS ARE TOO FAST FOR HUMAN WORKERS.
vision system from Teledyne DALSA to ensure robots on two assembly lines securely grip parts to place them on a rapidly moving conveyor. In the past, the parts were lifted and placed manually. Automation has increased productivity by about six times. Systems like this lend themselves to environments where clutter is unavoidable or too expensive to eliminate, or line speeds are too fast for human workers. Advanced systems are even addressing what may be the most challenging VGR application—picking randomly distributed objects of varying sizes, shapes and weights from bins in factories and distribution centers such as Amazon’s network of massive automated fulfillment centers.
TAKING ON RANDOM BIN PICKING Robotic random bin picking is especially challenging because the VGR system must locate and pick a specific part in a chaotic environment. As the robot removes parts from the bin, other parts constantly shift position and orientation. The system must
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A CLOSE LOOK AT VISION ROBOTICS
recognize the correct objects, determine in which order to pick them up, and calculate how to grip, lift and place them without colliding with other objects or bin walls. This requires a combination of highperformance machine vision hardware, sophisticated software and enough computing power to process large amounts of visual data in real time.
the bin or other objects. This interference avoidance software must be exceptionally robust because every pick from the bin requires a different path plan, and parts are often intertwined.
Machine vision hardware can be anything from a compact smart camera, (Teledyne DALSA’s BOA Spot) with an integrated vision processor, to complex laser and infrared sensors and highresolution, high-speed cameras.
AND WHAT ABOUT 3D VISION? Often VGR systems use more than one type of sensor to build 3D images. For example, a robot with a 3D area sensor locates and picks randomly positioned parts in a bin. Then a 2D camera detects the orientation of each part on the fly, so that the robot can correctly place them on a conveyor. By combining laser 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) scanning and snapshot 3D image capture, some VGR systems gain the resolution to work with a wider spectrum of objects than with a scanning system alone, but without needing to move the camera as with traditional snapshot camera systems. ToF scanning, which measures the time it takes light from a laser to travel between the camera and an object’s surfaces to determine its depth, has the advantage of working in any lighting condition. Structured-light 3D systems, such as Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for video gaming, cast an invisible infrared light pattern on an object, then generate a 3D depth image by using a 2D camera to detect the distortions of that light pattern. This process can be used for 3D mapping of multiple objects in a sorting bin.
ROBUST HARDWARE AND ALGORITHMS These advanced vision systems are able to process large amounts of data by using hardware accelerators such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This gives them the capability to handle thousands of SKUs on production lines and in order fulfillment applications. A critical component of advanced VGR systems is algorithms that prevent the robot and its end-ofarm gripping tool from colliding with the sides of
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Aided by a 3D area sensor to locate random parts in a bin, the robot plans its next prick. (Courtesy of Motion Controls Robotics, Inc.)
LOOKING AHEAD Increasingly, VGR software, including an opensource Robot Operating System (ROS), agnostic to robots and sensors, will make it faster and easier for robot integrators to deliver VGR systems and to integrate new, more powerful sensors as they become available. At the same time, machine vision and robotics vendors are closely collaborating to make VGR more accessible. For example, machine vision vendors have developed tools that make it easier for engineers to model and optimize sensors for a robotic cell. They are also developing Windowsbased VGR systems that are easy for end customers to use. Thanks to innovations like these, VGR use is now approaching 50% of robotics in consumer electronics (above the circuit-board level) and other light assembly in Asia. And as random bin picking technology fast becomes a flexible, easy to understand and interchangeable commodity, it’s within the reach of small and medium-sized companies looking to reduce manual intervention, improve safety and quality and increase productivity.
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ONE PASS. TWO CONFERENCE TRACKS. NOVEMBER 15-16, 2017 DOUBLETREE BY HILTON SAN JOSE SAN JOSE, CA Customize your learning experience with topics including: • Considerations When Applying Collaborative Robots • Collaborative Factory of the Future
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50
Exhibiting Tabletops
9
Networking Sessions
4
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