Design and Implementation of User Friendly Remote Controllers for Rescue Robots in Fire Sites

Robot applications with rescue operations have been widely developed for disaster prevention purposes such as fire-fighting robot, rescue robot, and surveillance robot. This paper proposes two novel wireless remote controllers which offer not only user friendly operating interface but also easy robot controls. The handheld type controller is able to be easily carried by fire fighters and the joystick based controller enables more accurate and rapid controls for specified tasks in emergence environment. Both controllers are designed to be capable of gathering environment information such as video data, temperature, gas concentration and etc. Through the performance evaluation and questionnaire survey with a mobile rescue robot system, we have analyzed their efficiency considering fire fighter's usability. Then by accepting the opinions of fire fighters, we suggest applicable scenarios for both controllers in expected fire sites. © 2010 SICE.1

Electrochemical mechanical polishing technology: recent developments and future research and industrial needs

Electrochemical mechanical (ECM) polishing processes are widely used in various industries such as die and mould manufacturing, turbine blades, and components with complex surfaces. They are used to improve the surface quality and get glossy surfaces with enhanced mechanical properties. In this paper, the authors first look into the fundamental principles of the ECM polishing technology. Then the main parameters that affect the ECM polishing process such as applied voltage, electrolyte concentration, rotational speed and polishing pressure are discussed, and the related research issues are raised. Studying these parameters will enhance the performance, increase the efficiency of ECM polishing technology and provide a useful reference for further developments. Up to date, automatic ECM polishing is limited for planarization process and surfaces with simple geometry such as hole-wall and rotary surfaces. In addition, in some of ECM finishing technologies, the limited available working space usually forces the manufacture to machine one part in multiple stages. Because robots have some advantages over conventional machines such as flexibility, low price and mechanical reconfigurability, they are an effective and economical solution for ECM polishing of geometrically complex workpieces. In order to advance the ECM technology for the next competitive stage where a promising quantitative and qualitative processing is required, the authors proposed that the future researches on ECM polishing should also include ECM polishing using robots. In addition, the authors propose several configurations and setups of robotic ECM polishing systems. The research topics in this area should include designing of new ECM polishing tools, investigating the synergistic effects of additional sources of energies such as magnetic field and ultrasonic vibrations besides the normal effect of ECM tools and developing models and control methods of the processes