Robotic arms

Figure 6 AIR-1 articulated robot arm with six degrees of freedom Robot performs ultrasonic inspection of a large nozzle weld on a BWR main circulation pipe.

The convention extrusion blow moulding process may be continuous or intermittent. In the former method the extruder continuously supplies molten polymer through the annular die. In most cases the mould assembly moves relative to the die. When the mould has closed around the parison, a hot knife separates the latter from the extruder and the mould moves away for inflation, cooling and ejection of the moulding. Meanwhile the next parison will have been produced and this mould may move back to collect it or, in multi-mould systems, this would have been picked up by another mould. Alternatively in some machines the mould assembly is fixed and the required length of parison is cut off and transported to the mould by a robot arm. 

The Space Shuttle Discovery s robotic arm deploys the SPARTAN-201 satellite. (Corbis-Eettmann)... 

Bar-Cohen, Y., Xue, T., Shahinpoor, M., Simpson, J.O., and Smith, J., Flexible, low-mass robotic arm actuated by electroactive polymers. Proceedings ofSPIE 5th Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials, March 1998, San Diego, CA, Paper no. 3329-07. 

Figure 7. Configuration of the materials durability test system 1, Zymark robot arm 2, Mettler balance 3, blotting station 4, capping station 5, specimen rack 6, water bath 7, block oven 8, vacuum oven 9, freezing chamber 10, NDT station 11, automated micrometer, and 12, washing station. O, specimen holder.

A patented Dow-designed specimen bar magazine with a capacity of 125 bars makes the specimens available to the robotic arm. Specimens are stacked vertically, with their end tabs constrained by two channels so that only vertical motion is possible. A slot in the base of each channel allows the robot to pull specimens, one at a time, from the bottom of the stack. Once removed from the channels, the bars are dropped down a pair of circular slides which... 

Figure 2. Closeup view of tensile test apparatus showing (A) Robotic arm with special fingers...

FIG. 5. Schematic representation of the ASTER deposition system. Indicated are (I) load lock. (2) plasma reactor for intrinsic layers. (3) plasma reactor for />-type layers. (4) plasma reactor for t -type layers, (5) metal-evaporation chamber (see text). (6) central transport chamber. (7) robot arm. (8) reaction chamber, (9) gate valve, (10) gas supply. (11) bypass. (12) measuring devices, and (13) tur-bomolecular pump. 

Fig. 3.14 Left. NASA Mars-Exploration-Rover (artist view courtesy NASA, JPL, Cornell). On the front side of the Rover the robotic arm carrying the Mossbauer spectrometer and other instruments can be seen in stowed position. Right, robotic arm before placement on soil target at Victoria crater rim, Meridian Planum, Mars. The Mossbauer instrument MIMOS II with its circular contact plate can be seen, pointing towards the rover camera. See also Sect. 8.3...

Physically, the MIMOS II Mossbauer spectrometer has two components that are joined by an interconnect cable the sensor head (SH) and electronics printed-circuit board (PCB). On MER, the SH is located at the end of the Instrument Deployment Device (IDD) and the electronics board is located in an electronics box inside the rover body. On Mars-Express Beagle-2, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission in 2003, the SH was mounted also on a robotic arm integrated to the Position... 

Because of the complexity of sample preparation, backscatter measurement geometry (see Fig. 3.19) is the choice for an in situ planetary Mossbauer instrument [36, 47 9]. No sample preparation is required, because the instmment is simply presented to the sample for analysis. On MER, the MIMOS II SH is mounted on a robotic arm that places it in physical contact with the analysis target (e.g., rock or soil) [36, 37]. 

Fig. 8.27 NASA Mars-Exploration-Rover artist view (courtesy NASA, JPL, Cornell). On the front side of the Rover, the robotic arm (IDD) carrying the Mossbauer spectrometer and other instruments can be seen...

Fig. 8.28 External view of the MIMOS II sensor head without contact plate assembly (left) MIMOS II sensor head mounted on the robotic arm (IDD) of the Mars Exploration Rover. The IDD also carries the a-Particle-X-ray Spectrometer APXS, also from Mainz, Germany, for elemental analysis, the Microscope Imager MI for high resolution microscopic pictures ( 30 pm per pixel), and the RAT for sample preparation (brushing grinding drilling (< 1 cm depth)). Picture taken at Kennedy-Space-Center KSC, Florida, USA...

Fig. 8.33 Left, robotic arm with MIMOS II positioned on the rock Adirondack, as seen by the navigation camera of the rover Right. Mossbauer Spectrum (14.4 keV temperature range 220-280 K) of the rock Adirondack at Spirit landing side Gusev Crater, plains. The data were taken at the as-is dusty surface (not yet brushed). The spectrum shows an olivine-basalt composition, typical for soil and rocks in Gusev plains, consisting of the minerals olivine, pyroxene, an Fe doublet, and nonstoichiometric magnetite...

The most complex automated systems are used almost exclusively by centralized HTS operations in large pharmaceutical companies and are referred to as ultra HTS (uHTS) platforms. They typically consist of the same four functional instruments, but have the capacity to process several hundred plates per extended workday. They often incorporate a modular design philosophy with multiple duplicate instruments for enhanced capacity that offer some functional redundancy. The mechanism for moving plates from one instrument module to another is often, but not always, a continuous track-way that resembles an industrial assembly line rather than the robotic arm typically used in a workcell system [5-8],... 

Robot arm system for sample preparation with different workstations (reproduced by permission of Zymark Corporation). 

In one application, the same programmable controllor coordinating the actions of the machine is also providing control over an intrinsically safe robotic arm which loads and unloads the heavy projectiles being processed. In this way, the maximum protection is afforded not only to the operator, but also to the facility. 

Liquid hydrogen requires extreme precautions in handling because of the low temperature. Fueling is usually done mechanically with a robot arm. Even in large, centralized liquefaction units, the electric power requirement is high with 12 to 15 kilowatt-hours (kWh) needed per kilogram of hydrogen liquefied. 

Figure 6.12 Schematic representation of Zymate robotic system (Zymark Corporation). The robotic arm is programmed to move between the various modules required for a particular analysis.

Robot-based automated devices have been designed to perform HPLC injections (esp. off-line injections) unattended by pharmaceutical researchers. Each step of an HPLC analysis can be automated either by the robotic arm itself or by the use of a dedicated automated peripheral... 

Similar to screen printing, the spray coating method [95] is widely used for catalyst fabrication, especially in labs. The major difference between the two is that the viscosity of the ink for spray coating is much lower than that for screen printing. The application apparatus can be a manual spray gun or an auto-spraying system with programmed X-Y axes, movable robotic arm, an ink reservoir and supply loop, ink atomization, and a spray nozzle with adjustable flux and pressure. The catalyst ink can be coated on the gas diffusion layer or cast directly on the membrane. To prevent distortion and swelling of the membrane, either it is converted into Na+ form or a vacuum table is used to fix the membrane. The catalyst layer is dried in situ or put into an oven to remove the solvent. 

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