A machine in its prime: a robot manipulator will manage production and help in everyday life

A student design bureau from Blagoveshchensk has developed a new robot that can control other robotic systems. According to the idea of the authors of the project, he will be indispensable in small industries, warehouses, and will also be able to help people with disabilities with household chores. The first working prototype of such a machine from available components using 3D printing was presented at the Amurtechno exhibition. Read more about the innovation in the Izvestia article.

The robot will control other robots.

Young specialists from the Radioelectronics Student Design Bureau of the Tsiolkovsky Research Center of Amur State University (AmSU) have produced a prototype of a conceptually new portable manipulator that, in addition to performing its own functions, is capable of controlling a conveyor belt and other robots. The mechanism, which adapts to various platforms and takes over their management functions, will automate the activities of small companies. It can also be used in everyday life, it can be used in combination with a mobile platform as an assistant to execute commands "bring, serve, which will be useful for people with disabilities.

The production of such a robot did not require large expenses, Dmitry Fomin, deputy director of the Institute of Computer and Engineering Sciences at AmSU, director of the REC, told Izvestia.

— I would like to emphasize that this is a student development supported by young engineers of the scientific and educational center and a mentor. At the moment, a working prototype has been assembled from available components using 3D printing for body elements," said Dmitry Fomin.

Photo: Dmitry Strukov

According to him, the special feature of the manipulator is that it controls other robots to perform the task assigned to it. At this stage, it is controlled by a robotic conveyor. It is the manipulator that regulates the speed of the conveyor belt, controls its stop and start at the moments when it needs to perform its operations, and performs conveyor diagnostics.

The robot consists of available components: microcontrollers, standard stepper motor drivers, and the motors themselves, which are widely used in 3D printer designs, among others. Other machines are controlled using a prepared program written to the microcontroller. In each individual case of recruitment, the program is adjusted.

Photo: Dmitry Strukov

To demonstrate the robot's abilities, the specialists tried on the role of a sorter of products entering the conveyor. In this process, the manipulator finds the desired sample thanks to computer vision, gives the command to stop the moving conveyor belt, and at the moment when the sample enters the capture zone, transfers it to a special container. Then he controls the start of the conveyor and searches for the next sample among others, adjusting the speed of the conveyor belt depending on the number of items on it.

— This is just an example of using such a robot. One of our ideas is to invite third—party developers to design platforms for this type of portable manipulator to expand the overall capabilities. To implement this, it is proposed to make the interface part and the data exchange protocol "transparent", Dmitry Fomin told Izvestia.

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Demand for robotics

As for industrial applications, such a manipulator will be indispensable for warehouse facilities. You can also offer product sorting, for example, at a poultry farm. He can distribute eggs of different sizes, which belong to different categories, into appropriate packages. The robot can also act as an OTC (technical control department), rejecting substandard products. In the future, scientists plan to add an AI element to the software component.

There is a huge demand for robotics in the country right now. The creation of manipulators for automating various production processes is a very promising direction, Alexey Karfidov, Head of the Department of Technological Equipment Engineering at NUST MISIS, told Izvestia.

— It is good if the degree of use of domestic components and materials in this product is also high. This work takes into account a large original engineering and design share and at the same time a very interesting, unusual IT component. This can be an additional advantage for products of this type, because now we are largely engaged in import substitution, creating new solutions, including in the interface part," said the specialist.

Photo: Dmitry Strukov

Robotization technologies are used in the domestic pharmaceutical industry, in plastic industries, in the food industry and in manufacturing enterprises. The share of such technologies in each of the listed industries exceeds 20%, and in the manufacture of medicines the level is more than 35%, including all stages, including research, transportation and packaging, added Leonid Drobyshevich, NTI technology expert. The share of industrial robots in furniture production and construction is also increasing, for example, in terms of modular production. Such manipulators, as a rule, perform dangerous operations for people or solve routine, mechanical tasks. This approach increases labor productivity and develops automation, he stressed.

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— The presented robot arm is just an embedded component of the production equipment, which, having a manipulator arm and machine vision, sorts products on the conveyor. His task is to sort with such speed and accuracy that is inaccessible to humans. At the same time, there is no need to stop the conveyor or control third-party units. At the same time, this technology can complicate already automated processes," Vyacheslav Bogachev, head of the laboratory at the NTI Center for Digital Materials Science: New Materials and Substances at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, believes.

Photo: Dmitry Strukov

The robot arm was presented on October 31 at the interregional innovation exhibition-competition "Amurtechno" in Blagoveshchensk. The development is carried out within the framework of the "Decade of Science and Technology".