by David Geer
Contact the author at geercom@windstream.net
Hot Dog!
Robot serves up wieners!
If you want people to pay attention to your technology, blend it with
something that lots of people already love. In this case, that turned out
to be the all-American hot dog!
Hot Dog Handler Inception
Design
The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
robotics club was brainstorming one day on how
to demonstrate the skills of the members.
Suddenly, the perfect plan materialized in the
form of a robotic chef that would help to feed
the hungry RIT masses. Thus, the hot dog handler
was born.
The hot dog robot turned out to be a
good way to teach the students a number of
new capabilities in manufacturing engineering,
according to Kevin Laperriere and Dustin
D’Angelo, undergraduates
at RIT. “We learned
machining skills,
pneumatics, electronics,
programming, fixturing,
and how to control a
system,” commented
D’Angelo and Laperriere.
The students were also
looking for ways to interest
youngsters in
the manufacturing/
engineering trade. “The hot
dog robot proved
to be very eye catching for
children of all
ages,” Laperriere and
D’Angelo smiled.
In 2008, the roboticists first adapted an Adept
robotic arm (an Adept Cobra 600) for picking and
placing objects on a wooden bench. Next, they
moved it around the campus and tried it at
different locations.
Later (in 2009), the student roboticists
designed add-on fixtures for the robot that could
hold the buns and hot dogs, and manipulate
them. This design process was done in Autodesk
Inventor — a 3D manufacturing design and digital
prototyping software package.
Hot dog vending robot
with Adept robot arm
serves dogs to a hungry
crowd, assisted by
student roboticists.
10 SERVO 05.2010
