Internet page

Citation

(2000), "Internet page", Industrial Robot, Vol. 27 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2000.04927cag.001

Internet page

http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/pff/pffv5n4/panv5n4.htmArticle

Keywords: Grippers, Robots

This page contains an article titled "A gripper for external robot servicing" written by F. Panin of the Product Assurance and Safety Support Section, ESTEC, of the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA comprises 14 countries, namely, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. For 25 years these countries have been working together and pooling their resources to open up new pathways in space exploration.

The article discusses robotics and the requirement for well designed grippers. ESA has currently only developed a basic end effector (BEE) for the European robotic arm. This gripper can perform recovery of insertion misalignments, position an object at a target location, secure an object firmly and releasably, provide mechanical power and monitor gripper status and operation. Details of the design description and prototype testing can also be found.

The ESA Web site contains information about ESA, the different centres, Estec, Esoc, Esrin and EAC, press releases, conference details, an image gallery and video archive, lists of publications and links to other sites of interest.

http://www.cofil.it/1ctm.htmColombo Filippetti SPA

This Web site is available in both Italian and English. There is no information about the company on the site but there is plenty about their products. This includes the cut tool changers with rotary tool storage magazine, which are designated CTM mechanisms. They are available in three sizes: CTM 30, CTM 40, CTM 50, with the sizes being dependent on the characteristics of the tools to be used with the magazine. The standard capacities of the rotary magazine are 12, 20, 30, or 32 tools.

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~tahhan/PRIVAT/Work/Thesis/thesis.htmThesis

Keywords: Sensors, Grippers

These Web pages contain a thesis titled "Modification of an existing design for a tactile sensor for the purpose of mounting it to a miniature gripper for a laparoscopic instrument" which is available in English and German. It highlights the purpose of the project and gives background information, results, future improvements, conclusions and references. Overall this site is simple but informative.

http://www-cgi.cs.cmu.edu/~aml/Advanced Mechatronics Laboratory

Keywords: Intelligent systems

The Advanced Mechatronics Laboratory affiliations within Carnegie Mellon University include the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Robotics Institute, the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Their research focuses on the idea of rapidly deployable intelligent systems, which addresses composition, collaboration, task management, and adaptation. These concepts are currently being explored through projects in distributed information systems, distributed robotics systems, distributed design systems, intelligent instruments, sensor based robotics, reconfigurable systems and adaptive software.

This Web site is well presented but unfortunately you cannot see all the links on a 15" monitor. This is due to the size of the button pictures and there is no apparent option for a text only version.

http://www.eng.fiu.edu/me/robotics/flconf.htm1997 Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Keywords: Robotics, Conference

Held at the Florida International University (FIU), Miami, Florida, 10-11 April 1997, the annually-held conference was started in 1988 and has been organised in various cities in Florida. The conference was made up of six sessions, namely, Design I and II, machine vision, modelling, robot control and sensing, and two plenary sessions on tele-robotics: promises and problems and robotics development for waste management within DOE.

http://www.research.usf.edu/pl/license/PAGE99.htmRobot Gripper - Patent pending

Keywords: Robots, Grippers

This simple site gives details of an innovative design for a robot gripper which was developed by the University of South Florida, College of Engineering. The gripper uses a non-elastic, flexible material disposed on each gripper's surface so that when the gripper surfaces simultaneously apply compression and lifting forces to the object, a shear force will be generated which will eventually grip the object in order to lift it.

http://www.gmg-system.com/Global Modular Gripper Inc.

Keyword: Grippers

Available in German, English and French, the Global Modular Gripper Inc. Web site contains information about specific features, gripper-types, accessories and spare parts and their worldwide offices. It is also possible to download technical drawings (DXF-file format) as self extracting executables. There are many pictures of the products and plenty of technical data. Grippers can be selected either by the geometry of the object, flat/rectangular or circular/hexagonal, or by the gripper type.

Overall this is another very good site. Ideally it needs to be viewed on a large monitor as it has quite a few frames, but when you enter it is designed for 800 x 600 pixels.

http://www.ccyber.com/California Cybernetics Company

Keyword: Grippers

The California Cybernetics Company was founded in 1990 and offers a wide selection of high performance products which have a high degree of electronic and architectural compatibility. They produce multiprocessors, force sensors, grippers, autonomous robots, motor controllers, joystick and controller devices, CNC mills and controllers, which all interface to each other via various standard data links. Examples of systems produced include robot arm control cells using various robot arms and bilateral (force feedback) tele-operation systems.

This site is very interesting and has a number of useful links to other robot Web sites.

HOT SITES

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/Robotics and Intelligent Machines Laboratory

Keywords:Robotics

Robotics and Intelligent Machines Laboratory is part of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley. Active areas of research include medical robotics, adaptation and learning in biological and artificial systems, air traffic management systems, control of hybrid systems, micro-mechanical flying insect, motion planning with non-holonomic velocity constraints, tele-taction system and virtual environments for surgical training and augmentation (VESTA).

This Web site is well laid out, easy to navigate and worth a visit.

http://www.grippers.com/Zaytran Automation - Grippers

Keywords:Grippers

ZAYTRAN gripper technology is now in its third-generation and the selection of super tough, corrosive resistant materials allows these grippers to efficiently serve in both day-to-day and extreme environments, at a competitive price. Application areas for their grippers include welding, grinding, machining, clean rooms, epitaxial wafer fabrication, hard disk fabrication and food processing.

The site contains lots of information on all of their grippers, a gripper CAD download page which contains self extracting (into DWG format) ZIP files, gripper distributor links, job opportunities and details of the National Design Engineering Show and the Robot Vision show in Detroit. It also has a funny little tune that plays constantly when you visit the main page.