Then
d
n
a
NOW
ROBOT APPLICATIONS
by Tom Carroll
Robots have come a long way since the first industrial robots of the early ’60s. George
C. Devol obtained a patent in 1954 for ‘a programmable method for transferring articles
between different parts of a factory.’ Later, he met up with a younger engineer, Joseph
Engelberger; they observed that ‘ 50 percent of the people who work in factories are
really putting and taking.’ After wondering, “Why are machines made to produce only
specific items?” They asked, “How about approaching manufacturing the other way
around, by designing machines that could put and take anything.”
Thus was born the first industrial robot that could pick up something at one location in
a manufacturing operation and transfer it to another location. Robotics had now
become a new branch of manufacturing. This was the sole robot application for a
while, but manufacturers quickly saw ways that these new machines could be used in
other ways. Since that original Unimate robot had a limited semi spherical range of
motion, manufacturers soon designed robots with the more familiar articulated arm
configuration to perform more tasks.
Robotics in Modern
House Construction
There are many new houses still being built, and I have
always enjoyed watching this building process. For example,
one of the most interesting ways of pouring concrete for
foundations, patios, and walkways is the use of a concrete
pumper that reaches out and places the wet concrete
virtually any place on the lot. Instead of the traditional
method where a cement mixer truck deposits small amounts
of concrete into wheel barrows that are then pushed to the
places where they’re needed, the truck delivers many yards
of mix into a hopper on the pumper truck that is then
pumped to where it’s needed. Figure 1 shows a remotely-controlled pumper’s boom. Note the man with the wireless
remote control. Moving one of two joysticks, the operator
easily moves the hose at the end of the boom to any place
where cement needs pouring. As I’ve watched several of
these operations, it’s quite obvious that the pumper’s arm is
— in reality — a huge multi-axis robot arm.
At another building site, I saw another type of crane
system (Figure 2) deftly scooping up about 500 pounds of
FIGURE 1.
Concrete
pumper
remote
control.
SERVO 08.2010 77
