Custom Robotics and Controls

When the capabilities of commercially available robotics are inadequate for a specific function, SwRI engineers push the boundaries of mechanical, electrical, and controls design to create a custom solution.

Specialized robotic solutions are often required to meet the needs of cutting-edge development. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with its diverse expertise and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, integrates advanced and commercially available technologies into custom robotic systems to solve a variety of automation needs. To meet the needs of commercial and government clients, SwRI offers the following services:

• Custom control system development
• Forward and inverse custom kinematic solutions
• Robot modeling and simulation
• Cooperative robotics
• System fabrication, testing and installation
• On-site robot performance evaluation
• Applied robotic research
• End effector design and development
• Adaptive, force feedback and visual servoing
• Distributed control architectures
• Compliance
• Custom robotic system development, including design, simulation, kinematic and dynamic analyses, fabrication, testing and installation
• Fuzzy-logic control

Developed specifically for research applications, this planar redundant link robot has been used to test control algorithms for kinematically redundant robots. SwRI engineers designed the apparatus to be modular so as to enable it to be quickly modified for special research applications.

Using a stereo-based laser end effector and computer vision techniques, this two-robot system locates, identifies, and removes flaws on the surface of aircraft cockpit canopies.

The robot shown here performs torque converter vane insertion using a fuzzy-logic-based force-feedback control algorithm. The force-feedback approach allows the robot to adapt its motions in real-time in response to feedback from the assembly operation. This technology permits the use of robotics in applications unsuitable for traditional “fixed-path” control schemes, such as press-fit or high-variability assembly tasks.

As part of an underwater exploratory vehicle, SwRI engineers are developing a suite of sampling devices including environmental and vision sensors, a water-sampling system using computer vision to identify unique microbial life, and a robotic arm (inset) to retrieve liquid and solid samples from the underwater environment. The autonomous robotic vehicle will serve as a pilot for possible future explorations of other planets.

This brochure was published in August 2006. For more information about custom robotics and controls, contact Paul Evans, Director, Automation Engineering Section, Automation and Data Systems, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, Phone (210) 522-2994, Fax (210) 522-4644.

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