Cambridge, Massachusetts (January 22, 2010) –A key milestone was reached today in Stavanger, Norway, as the Seabed Rig team demonstrated autonomous grasping and real-time control of an underwater robot arm designed to lift 3000 kg (making it one of the most powerful robots in the world). The arm is being controlled by Energid’s patented Actin control software, which simplifies development and allows for smooth, safe, intelligent control.
“There’s no doubt that the Seabed Rig arm has brawn,” says Kenneth Mikalsen, CTO of Seabed Rig, “but it also has brains.The Actin control software provides unparalleled intelligence not before available in industrial grade arms.”
Rather than simply playing back pre-recorded paths, the Actin software uses information about the current state of the environment and the rig to find an optimal way to perform a task in real-time. The optimization insures the robot avoids joint limits, collisions (with itself and the environment), and singularities, among other things.
The arm is coupled with a novel underactuated hand being developed by Stanford University.The hand is inherently compliant—allowing it to wrap around a variety of objects without relying on a priori knowledge of the objects’ geometry.
The arm and hand are designed to operate on an autonomous undersea oil rig being created by Seabed Rig for oil exploration in ultra-deep and arctic regions.
“Seabed Rig’s bold vision will propel exploratory oil drilling into the future,” says Neil Tardella, COO of Energid Technologies, “we are proud to be a part of it.”
For more information, contact Mary Salzman at Energid Technologies, (888) 547-4100 x 420.
About Energid Technologies
Energid Technologies develops tools for robotic applications in the aerospace, agriculture, transportation, defense, and medical industries.Energid’s ActinTM and SelectinTM products provide advanced robotics technology in the form of extendable software toolkits. Energid specializes in the sensing, control, and simulation of complex systems.
About Seabed Rig
Seabed Rig AS is developing an innovative sea bed drilling rig to carry out cost-effective drilling from a location at the sea bed, at deep waters and in arctic areas. The Seabed Rig is unmanned with automated and robotized working operations that are remotely controlled from an interactive 3D interface.For more information, please visit www.seabedrig.no.
2010 Energid Technologies Corporation. All rights reserved. Actin, Selectin, and the Energid logo are trademarks of Energid Technologies Corporation.
