The Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada
The Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada commissioned The Machine Lab, Inc. to design and build a custom research robot for their AR2S robotics laboratory.
This robot has many features that give it the ability to sense its environment and interact with it. Some exceptional features that it has are:
Pan/Tilt/Tilt Mechanism for 260X Zoom camera and S3000 SICK Laser Scanner. The pan axis and the two separate Tilt axis have position feedback. There is also an array of 6 ultra bright white LEDs for proportional, variable illumination.
A six axis manipulator arm with feedback sensors on all axis of motion including pressure feedback sensors on the gripper pads. This arm can lift 15 pounds at a full extension of 48 inches. The arm can lift 35 pounds in retracted positions.
We designed a custom wireless (OCU) Operator Control Unit that allows an operator to control all axis of the robot remotely with color video and audio.
The OCU has an interrupt switch that allows the operator to switch between wireless control and RS-232 computer control by an on-board PC. This gives the robot the ability to operate autonomously or semi-autonomously at any time.
