The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : IN DEVELOPMENT : ‘More Human’ Robot Lends a Hand Cheaply
Robots are touted as better than humans at certain repetitive tasks, such as picking up objects and placing them elsewhere with extremely high degrees of accuracy. But not everyone needs a $70,000 piece of robotic machinery or the accuracy that such a sum buys. Enter the “intelligent integrated belt manipulator,” which researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology hope will do for the robotics industry what the PC has done for the computer industry. By lowering the cost of a robot to about $20,000 and making it simple for non-engineers to operate, the researchers hope their “more human” robot will make the adoption of robotics more cost-effective for some industries.
The Georgia Tech system uses a computer algorithm to determine the position of an object on a conveyor belt, based on the information provided by five low-cost photocells. By knowing when the object on the belt blocks the light of each photocell, the computer can determine the object’s shape and location on the belt with enough accuracy for the robotic arm to find it. This eliminates the need for an expensive machine vision system.
The robot’s “hand” consists of four inflatable fingers, each of which is like a rubber bellows. The bellows expands around and sometimes under the object to grip it securely and with enough accuracy and speed for many mundane tasks. The robot was originally designed for the poultry industry to pick up chicken legs, thighs and breasts from a conveyor belt.
Organics on Display: U.S. researchers continue to work on new technologies that might one day form the basis of a domestic industry for producing flat-panel displays, the versatile screens used in portable computers and various military applications. Now AT&T; Bell Laboratories reports it has made significant progress in a new field of electronics that uses organic semiconductors to emit light.
Semiconductors are usually made from silicon, an inorganic element. Organic substances, which always include carbon, can be deposited onto a glass substrate, which is easier and cheaper than growing inorganic materials. Using a single organic electroluminescent called ALQ, a compound patented by Eastman Kodak Co., Bell Labs has produced miniature light-emitting diodes on glass that generate the primary colors of red, green and blue. The technology would make it unnecessary to go through the difficult and expensive process of integrating the patterns of three distinct chemicals to produce full-color displays.
The researchers hope they will one day be able to compete with active-matrix liquid-crystal displays, a technology now dominated by Japanese companies.
Biological Band-Aids: Perhaps the oldest healing aid in the doctor’s bag is the lowly bandage. Its purpose is simple: to shield a wound from bacteria and hold helpful medicines close to the skin. But researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have a bandage they believe will actively assist in healing.
Using the techniques of molecular biology, Richard Eckert, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Case Western, came up with genetically engineered cells that overproduce a protein manufactured naturally by the body. It is these cells that release growth factors, which in turn trigger a host of skin-repair functions.
The Genetically Engineered Biological Bandage is a plastic envelope containing growth-factor-producing cells. When applied, GEBB stimulates the body’s skin-repair mechanisms to heal a wound more quickly. The bandage must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration and would not reach the market for at least five years.
Old Technology, New Tricks: The search for technology to reduce gasoline consumption and cut carbon dioxide emissions has come around to a common automobile fixture: the venerable flywheel. In a conventional automobile, the flywheel’s purpose is to store kinetic energy and release it when needed, thus keeping the engine running smoothly. But flywheels can also be used to create batteries for the hybrid cars being developed that use both electricity and gasoline.
General Motors Corp. and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently entered into a $3-million agreement to see if flywheel batteries can replace chemical batteries in these autos. In hybrid vehicles, chemical batteries must be replaced frequently because they are constantly charged and discharged. Flywheel batteries can be charged and discharged endlessly at very high rates.
The battery’s purpose is to capture and store energy now dissipated during braking, energy that could then be used to power quick accelerations without using extra gas.
