Balancing Bionic Mobile Assistant could lend a helping hand in 'niche' applications
发布时间：2024年6月5日 18:49
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Festo's BionicMobileAssistant has a modular design including a mobile robot, an electric robot arm and a bionic hand (Credit: Festo)
What do you get if you cross a Segway, an industrial robot and a prosthetic hand? Probably something like the BionicMobileAssistant, an “autonomous helper” from German multinational Festo.
What do you get if you cross a Segway, an industrial robot and a prosthetic hand? Probably something like the BionicMobileAssistant, an “autonomous helper” from German multinational Festo.
Developed with ETH Zurich, the prototype system has a modular design with three subsystems – a mobile robot, an electric robot arm, and Festo’s human-inspired BionicSoftHand 2.0. It moves independently in three dimensions, identifying and picking up objects.
Hand in hand
“It’s a very interesting looking thing,” says independent expert David Bisset, a member of the government’s Robotic Growth Partnership. He says the hand itself has “some quite novel features” , and predicts “niche” applications for it despite other options having greater dexterity.
Compact valve technology, sensors, electronics and mechanical components are tightly integrated into the small package. The 3D-printed wrist has two degrees of freedom and the pneumatic fingers and thumb are made of flexible bellows, with air chambers surrounded by fabric. “This makes the hand light, adaptive and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces,” Festo claims.
To safely work alongside humans, the robotic assistant must be very sensitive. Thankfully, it has an impressive range of equipment – bending sensors to determine fingertip position, a glove with tactile force sensors around the hand, and a depth camera on the inside of the wrist.
The hand is mounted on the robotic arm, which has a lightweight design and compact drive modules. Beneath that is the ball, controlled via rotating wheels on its surface. That design brings great freedom of movement, but could cause issues elsewhere.
“I can imagine stability is a real challenge,” says Bisset. “There is not much video of it rolling around... and yet it is also wobbling.”
Even when static, the machine would need to make constant adjustments with the controlling wheels to simply stay in the same place. An ‘inverse pendulum’ shape means it would have to work extra hard if it picked up a heavy object, adds Bisset, consuming yet more energy.
The robot’s small footprint and impressive reach could make it most useful in human environments, says Bisset – going between desks and shelves, interacting with people and assisting assembly workers.
From hazards to hospitals
Hazardous jobs are another possible application. Although many dangerous tasks happen in very constrained environments, there is more room to manoeuvre in jobs such as nuclear waste disposal. The robot could clamp itself onto solid surfaces to negate stability issues before carrying out work.
Those wobbles and constant adjustments take on a whole new dimension when moving around in dangerous situations, however. “If you’re working in a hazardous environment, you’re going to want to be sure this isn’t going to make it worse,” says Bisset.
It might be a while before the BionicMobileAssistant is trusted with spent uranium rods or irradiated equipment, but it could be applied in situations less fraught with danger. Festo suggests it could be used in hospitals, for example.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Hand in hand
“It’s a very interesting looking thing,” says independent expert David Bisset, a member of the government’s Robotic Growth Partnership. He says the hand itself has “some quite novel features” , and predicts “niche” applications for it despite other options having greater dexterity.
Compact valve technology, sensors, electronics and mechanical components are tightly integrated into the small package. The 3D-printed wrist has two degrees of freedom and the pneumatic fingers and thumb are made of flexible bellows, with air chambers surrounded by fabric. “This makes the hand light, adaptive and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces,” Festo claims.
To safely work alongside humans, the robotic assistant must be very sensitive. Thankfully, it has an impressive range of equipment – bending sensors to determine fingertip position, a glove with tactile force sensors around the hand, and a depth camera on the inside of the wrist.
The hand is mounted on the robotic arm, which has a lightweight design and compact drive modules. Beneath that is the ball, controlled via rotating wheels on its surface. That design brings great freedom of movement, but could cause issues elsewhere.
“I can imagine stability is a real challenge,” says Bisset. “There is not much video of it rolling around... and yet it is also wobbling.”
Even when static, the machine would need to make constant adjustments with the controlling wheels to simply stay in the same place. An ‘inverse pendulum’ shape means it would have to work extra hard if it picked up a heavy object, adds Bisset, consuming yet more energy.
The robot’s small footprint and impressive reach could make it most useful in human environments, says Bisset – going between desks and shelves, interacting with people and assisting assembly workers.
From hazards to hospitals
Hazardous jobs are another possible application. Although many dangerous tasks happen in very constrained environments, there is more room to manoeuvre in jobs such as nuclear waste disposal. The robot could clamp itself onto solid surfaces to negate stability issues before carrying out work.
Those wobbles and constant adjustments take on a whole new dimension when moving around in dangerous situations, however. “If you’re working in a hazardous environment, you’re going to want to be sure this isn’t going to make it worse,” says Bisset.
It might be a while before the BionicMobileAssistant is trusted with spent uranium rods or irradiated equipment, but it could be applied in situations less fraught with danger. Festo suggests it could be used in hospitals, for example.
Want the best engineering stories delivered straight to your inbox? The Professional Engineering newsletter gives you vital updates on the most cutting-edge engineering and exciting new job opportunities. To sign up, click here.
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
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