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INTELLIGENT
MACHINES
Mechanical manipulators have long been employed in hot cells to protect users from radioactive materials. Beginning in the late 1970s, ORNL researchers devised remotely controlled dexterous servomanipulators whose work could be viewed on television. Such "teleoperation" techniques enabled work in radioactive zones too hazardous for people. This technology, which extended earlier concepts developed at Argonne National Laboratory, was the start of ORNL's robotics activities. Since then, remote manipulation technology has been applied to nuclear fuel reprocessing, military-field-munitions handling, accelerators, fusion reactors, and environmental cleanup projects (e.g., remotely controlled plasma arc cutting of metal structures to dismantle contaminated equipment) at Department of Energy waste sites nationwide. In 1980 ORNL's John White and Howard Harvey founded REMOTEC, an Oak Ridge company (now owned by Northrup Grumman) that is the world leader in mobile robot systems. More than 700 REMOTEC robots are in use in 45 nations by military organizations, law enforcement agencies, nuclear facilities, and research laboratories. In 1986 ORNL's Lee Martin and Paul Satterlee founded Telerobotics International, which later morphed into iPIX, an imaging software and services provider whose customers work in security, observation, real estate, online auctions, and digital content development. In 1984 Satterlee, Martin, and Joe Herndon received ORNL's first R&D 100 award in robotics for a digitally controlled servomanipulator. (R&D 100 awards are given annually by R&D magazine for the 100 best innovations of the year. ORNL has won more of these awards than any other DOE lab.) This control system became the basis for Central Research Laboratories' control product line. In 1993 François Pin and Stephen Killough received ORNL's second robotics R&D 100 award for their invention of an omnidirectional holonomic platform. This innovation became the basis for several robotic platforms for DOE and the Department of Defense, as well as for a commercial omnidirectional wheelchair. In the 1990s ORNL robotics researchers contributed to remediation of DOE waste containers. Engineers devised remotely controlled robots with "common sense" that mapped the waste-filled silos at DOE's facility at Fernald, Ohio; this effort helped DOE complete the project on schedule and saved the agency millions of dollars. Dirk Van Hoosen and Barry Burks led the development of the radioactive tank cleaning system that successfully emptied ORNL's underground gunite tanks, which stored liquid radioactive wastes from ORNL's early reactor operations. This system avoided $120 million in costs to DOE, and lessons learned are guiding cleanup plans for other DOE sites. In the late 1990s Lynne Parker developed ALLIANCE, software that enables robots to be "trained" to carry out tasks as a team, to reduce the chance of mission failure. Her innovative work in cooperative robotics may provide Caterpillar and the U.S. military with autonomous, robust, decision-making machines. Pin is leading a major project for the U.S. Army to create "exoskeletons" powered by small fuel cells to enable soldiers to run faster and farther while carrying heavier loads. His group recently developed a small lightweight fuel cell for an effort that could amplify the strength, endurance, and speed of humans. In addition to helping soldiers, such an exoskeleton could improve worker safety and productivity in the construction, mining, and manufacturing industries and make rescue operations safer and faster.
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Web site provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Communications and External Relations |
Nageswara Rao demonstrates that his connectivity-through-time protocol enables robots to communicate with each other in performing a job.