Automatic Romaine Heart Harvester

The Romaine Robotics Senior Design Team developed a romaine lettuce heart trimming system in partnership with a Salinas farm to address a growing labor shortage in the agricultural industry that is resulting in crops rotting in the field before they could be harvested. An automated trimmer can alleviate the most time consuming step in the cut-trim-bag harvesting process, increasing the yields of robotic cutters or the speed of existing laborer teams. Leveraging the Partner Farm’s existing trimmer architecture, which consists of a laborer loading lettuce into sprungloaded grippers that are rotated through vision and cutting systems by an indexer, the team redesigned geometry to improve the loading, gripping, and ejection stages of the system. Physical testing, hand calculations, and FEA were performed to understand acceptable grip strengths and cup design, and several wooden mockups were built to explore a new actuating linkage design for the indexer. The team manufactured, assembled, and performed verification testing on a full-size metal motorized prototype that can be incorporated with the Partner Farm’s existing cutting and vision systems. The prototype met all of the established requirements, and the farm has implemented the redesign onto their trimmer. Future work would include designing and implementing vision and cutting systems for the team’s metal prototype

Micro-manufacturing : research, technology outcomes and development issues

Besides continuing effort in developing MEMS-based manufacturing techniques, latest effort in Micro-manufacturing is also in Non-MEMS-based manufacturing. Research and technological development (RTD) in this field is encouraged by the increased demand on micro-components as well as promised development in the scaling down of the traditional macro-manufacturing processes for micro-length-scale manufacturing. This paper highlights some EU funded research activities in micro/nano-manufacturing, and gives examples of the latest development in micro-manufacturing methods/techniques, process chains, hybrid-processes, manufacturing equipment and supporting technologies/device, etc., which is followed by a summary of the achievements of the EU MASMICRO project. Finally, concluding remarks are given, which raise several issues concerning further development in micro-manufacturing

Research and development of laser engraving and material cutting machine from 3D printer

This article deals with the adjustment of a 3D printer for laser engraving and material cutting. The print head can be fitted with a solid laser diode module, which achieves a compact size while retaining its useful power. Two paths lead to the use of such a concept. It is possible to equip the existing print head with a module, which also brings a number of disadvantages such as, for example, the reduction of the printing space or the need for a suitable mounting design. A more elegant solution is to consider this in the design of a 3D printer and design a system to exchange the print heads for 3D printing and laser engraving. Such a solution allows full utilization of the workspace and simple installation of the effector for the required type of work. According to the installed power of the laser diode, it is possible not only to engrave but also cut material such as thin wood, veneer or acrylic glass. The use of such a machine is not only for graphic elements but for the creation of various stencils, boxes or simple models, which can be made up of plastic-burning pieces. The laser module is controlled by a driver, which is designed for the device. This is connected to a 3D printer control board. It is, therefore, necessary for the control board to have at least two pins, which can be controlled after adjusting the control firmware. Most laser modules are normally equipped with an adjustable lens, which is used to concentrate the focus of a laser for the given distance against the worktop. Thus, the modified 3D printer can perform its function as a multi-purpose CNC machine, while a basic platform similar for both devices is used.Web of Science281524

Design and Development of Search and Rescue Robot

Search and rescue robot is developed mainly to move through rubbles and debris. When a natural disaster such as an earthquake struck causing the building to collapsed, this robot can be used to search for victims and transfer to safe place. Search and rescue robot is equipped with a robotic arm to perform the evacuation process. With this robotic arm, robot can easily grab the victim in collapsed building and bring to safe place. Generally, there is a lot of robot like this used for rescue operation in collapsed building. But non of them is control by using mobile devices. So this paper is purposely designed to develop a prototype of robotic vehicle using mobile devices as controller by using Bluetooth transmission. The distance can vary from 10 meter to 100 meter depending on the type of Bluetooth module used. This robot is powered by Arduino Uno R3 board using 9V AA battery for power supply. In order to control this robot using mobile devices, an application was designed by using MIT Inventor to create an application interface between robot and mobile devices. While for the robotic arm will be design by using Autocad software. In addition, robotic arm will also use four servos to move

Nonterrestrial utilization of materials: Automated space manufacturing facility

Four areas related to the nonterrestrial use of materials are included: (1) material resources needed for feedstock in an orbital manufacturing facility, (2) required initial components of a nonterrestrial manufacturing facility, (3) growth and productive capability of such a facility, and (4) automation and robotics requirements of the facility

A robot-based burr measurement system for the automotive industry

Burrs are often difficult to detect and measure because of their intrinsic variability in shape and dimension. No automotive standard had been established about their acceptable dimensions and measurement techniques for sheet steel products. For the automotive industry, even burrs of the size of 100 μm are perceived as damaging because of their dramatic impact upon panel corrosion resistance and assembly performance. It is critical to measure burrs during panel manufacture in order to control the process. The characterization of the typical burr produced has been carried out employing 3D measurements with a surface profilometer and a SEM. This analysis has shown a typical triangular burr shape and some characteristic dimensions. A contact method and two laser-triangulation systems have been developed. The instrument accuracy was analyzed, based upon a full factorial experimentation over a set of typical panels edges