Tom Shelley reports on some of the free-moving autonomous robots at this year’s Hanover Fair
Autonomous robots capable of finding their own way around and performing various tasks were the theme of this year’s Hanover Fair.
They ranged from industrial robot fork lift trucks for car factories to robotic jelly fish, programmed to keep clear of each other in water.
Applications, or intended applications, were mostly in manufacturing. But there were also robots to inform the public, look for intruders, survey rough terrain, clean windows – and play football. Some worked better than others, but there were none that posed any kind of threat to humans working in the same environment.
Festo, following on from its robotic swimming and flying manta rays last year, had swimming and flying jellyfish this year, produced once again by Evologics in Berlin. The philosophy in both cases was to have a vessel that was slightly heavier than the medium in which it floated, so that it either sank slowly or wafted its tentacles up and down, in order to rise. These used the same fish fin-inspired ‘Fin Ray’ effect actuators as were used for the Manta rays, which, states designer Leif Kniese, have since found commercial application in mop buckets – which use the mechanical action to squeeze more water out of the mop heads.
The water swimming ‘AquaJellies’ are each equipped with 11 infrared LEDs, with which they can communicate with other units under water. They also use ZigBee short-range radio at the surface to exchange data with the charging station and to signal other Aquajellies that the station is occupied. The underwater communication system ensures the individual units do not run into each other. This is a demonstration of a key area of developing robotic automation (and military) systems to get individual units to function together as a swarm, without having to control each one individually. By having a swash plate, controlled by two electric actuators, navigation of each AquaJelly is effected, while the swash plate, in turn, operates four outward extending pendulum arms. When these move in a particular direction, the centre of mass of the AquaJelly is displaced, so as to change the direction in which it swims.
Kniese says he is already working on next year’s project for Festo, although he declined to say what exactly this might be.
In another hall, totally given over to autonomous robots, Markus Eich from the DFKI Bremen and University of Bremen Robotics Laboratory was demonstrating a pair of autonomous security robots called ‘SentryBots’, which also worked in tandem. These were equipped with laser range finders for navigation and passive infrared sensors to detect human intruders. If the battery of one goes down, it finds a charging station and the other takes its place.
The slight limitation here is that they have wheels, so the same team is also developing an ‘Asguard’ unit, which Eich describes as having a hybrid between wheels and legs at the same time for stair climbing and traversing very rough ground. Each hybrid leg-wheel is formed as a compliant star shape, with a rubber foot on each extremity. It ran in a slightly jerky manner over the floor, but consistently demonstrated its ability to be able to climb up and down steps, and over loose obstacles. It was noteworthy that, even when it fell on its back, it could quickly right itself again.
“Each of the legs is controlled individually,” says Eich, “so it can feel its way along, with feedback from torque measurements and inertial sensors. We think it can swim, but we did not want to risk anything just before we brought it to the fair.” Intended applications are said to be search and rescue, and remote exploration – ie, investigating hazardous disaster areas. It is also dustproof and waterproof.
Present in an adjacent area were various robots from academic institutions engaged in playing football matches in the ‘Robo Cup’, which since last year has become a regular feature of the Hanover Fair. Many of these were able to function in teams, although reliability seemed to be a constant problem.
Reiner Frings, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) in Sankt Augustin, says there are now many groups in Germany engaged in developing autonomous and tele-operated robots for working across rough terrain. The institute itself has a system for rapid prototyping robots, to which it has given the name ‘VolksBot’. A six-wheeled version with an adaptive wheel suspension system, designated the VolksBot XT, demonstrated its ability to climb and descend stairs all on its own. It uses sensors that enable it to recognise stair landings automatically and follow stairways without instruction.
The same team have also developed this into a version called the MarBot, in co-operation with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. This machine uses its sensors to perform sediment analyses on the sea floor autonomously and is to be used to map large tidal flat areas in the shallow water zones off the island of Sylt in North Germany. Frings adds that a system powered by fuel cells has also been built for use in hospitals.
Apart from the research projects, a number of companies were showing commercially available autonomous robotic systems for use in a manufacturing environment. Siemens, for example, was demonstrating a full-sized forklift truck with its Siemens Autonomous Navigation System, working on part of a Volkswagen car production line on its stand in another hall. Back in the autonomous robot hall, Götting Radio and Sensor Engineering in Lehrte Röddensen, which already supplies autonomous systems for handling shipping containers, among other things, was showing an autonomous platform programmed to follow optical cues. One camera was following a blue-coloured low wall, keeping itself at a pre-programmed distance, while a second camera responded to two-dimensional bar codes, suspended above its working area. Sales engineer Silke Schael describes it as being able to “visualise the structure of its environment”, but says it is still in development.
However, already fully in production and working were the window, solar panel and oil tank cleaning robots developed by Niederberger-Engineering in Oberdorf, Switzerland. Board member Gabriel Strebel states that his company’s machines use GPS navigation and can clean up to 240 square metres per hour, day or night, using suckers to attach themselves to the surfaces they are cleaning. Mostly, the company makes models for cleaning flat areas, but also has models for areas where the panes change angles.
Pointers
* Autonomous robotic systems for handling items in manufacturing systems and undertaking various tasks are already commercially available and in service
* More sophisticated systems are in development
* Co-operating autonomous robots are still in the research phase, but can be demonstrated as functioning correctly; and one system at least is available for implementation in security applications
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