Servo - June 2011

Robytes by Jeff and Jenn Eckert

Bird Flight Deciphered

In 2009, we introduced you to some flying penguins from Festo AG ( www.festo.com), and last February, they came up with a handling assistant inspired by an elephant's trunk. This time, the company's fascination with animatronics has manifested itself in the form of SmartBird, an amazingly lifelike version of the herring gull. According to the company,

"With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds — one of the oldest dreams of humankind."

The bird can start, fly, and land autonomously with no drive mechanism other than its wings. Maneuverability is enhanced by wings that twist at specific angles, as well as flapping up and down — a trick made possible by the

"active articulated torsional drive unit."

The tail generates lift as well, in addition to its standard functions of elevator and rudder. In terms of the nuts and bolts of the thing, it is driven by a lithium polymer battery (two cells, 7.4V, 450 mA), a Graupner Compact 135 brushless motor, and a Texas Instruments MCU LM3S811 microcontroller. It's a bit larger than the real thing, with a wingspan of 2 m ( 78. 7 in) and a torso length of 1.07 m ( 42 in), vs. an approx. 56 in wingspan and 25 in body. It weighs significantly less, however: 0.45 kg/15.9 oz vs. up to 1.5 kg/3.3 lb. For more details, just point your browser to www.jkeckert. com/freedownloads/SmartBird.pdf and download the eight page brochure.

A real seagull eyes Festo's SmartBird with suspicion.

Bot System To Test Chemicals

It isn't news that robots are taking over more and more tasks that are dangerous or downright repugnant to humans, but the National Institutes of Health's Chemical Genomics Center ( www.genome.gov) has given their machines a highly ambitious assignment. Its Tox21 program — undertaken in collaboration with several other agencies — will use a robot system to test

10,000 chemicals for toxicity. The results should provide information about which of these substances have the potential to lead to adverse health effects. The chemical under analysis will include a variety of compounds found in industrial and consumer products, food additives, and pharmaceuticals. And this could be only the beginning, as the list of suspect substances was referred to as the

"initial" selection.

Tox21 has already tested more than 2,500 chemicals using various technologies, but the new system will speed up the process. As NCGC Director Christopher Austin noted, "The Tox21 collaboration will transform our understanding of toxicology with the ability to test in a day what would take one year for a person to do by hand."

A robot arm retrieves assay plates from incubators. (Credit: Maggie Bartlett, NJGRI.)

Drug-Dealing Automaton

Assuming the Tox21 program confirms that your favorite medication is acceptable, robotics may play an additional role in making sure you get the right prescription. A new pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center ( www.ucsfhealth.org) is using robotic technology and electronics to prepare and track medications, thereby improving patient safety. Customers may not be aware of the bot’s activities, as they are housed in a secure, sterile environment, but they are busy preparing oral and injectable medications, including toxic chemotherapy drugs. According to Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy, "Automated medication dispensing frees pharmacists from the mechanical aspects of the practice. This technology, with others, will allow pharmacists to use their pharmaceutical care expertise to assure that patients are treated with medicines tailored to their individual needs." Reportedly, not a single error has occurred in the 350,000 doses prepared during the system's phase-in.