James S. Albus

Robotic Patient Lift and Transfer

Pollack says “today, approximately 10 percent of the world’s population is over 60; by 2050 this proportion will have more than doubled” and “the greatest rate of increase is amongst the oldest old, people aged 85 and older.” [Pollack, 2004] She follows by adding that this group is therefore subject to both physical and cognitive impairments more than younger people. These facts have a profound impact on how the world will keep the elderly independent as long as possible from caregivers. Both physical and cognitive diminishing abilities address the body and the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, intuition and judgment. Assistive technology for the mobility impaired includes the wheelchair, lift aids and other devices, all of which have been around for centuries. However, the patient typically or eventually requires assistance to use the device whether to: push the wheelchair, to lift themselves from the bed to a chair or to the toilet, or guide the patient through cluttered areas. With fewer caregivers and more elderly in the near future, there is a need for improving these devices to provide them independent assistance. As further background, the authors have included sections on wheelchairs and lift devices.

A TOOL TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY IN LARGE SCALE MANUFACTURING

ABSTRACT: NIST is working directly with industry to improve repair and conversion operations ofships in dry dock. This work allows transfer of technology to construction and other industries requiringworker-access to large, external surfaces with minimum footprint and maximum system rigidity andcontrol, while augmenting conventional suspended-scaffold systems and moving toward moreautonomous large-scale manufacturing applications such as building construction. KEYWORDS: worker access, ship repair, construction, robotics, cable controlled, large-scalemanufacturing 1. INTRODUCTION The Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory ofthe National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) has teamed with AtlanticMarine, Inc. in Mobile, Alabama to studyefficient methods to repair ships in dry dock oralong a pier. This project, called Knowledge-based Modular Repair [1, 2] is under theauspices of the Navy National ShipbuildingResearch Program Advanced ShipbuildingEnterprise Initiative, where worker-, equipment-,and material access to external ship surfaces wasdetermined to be a key focus area. The conceptdeveloped in this project is called the “FlyingCarpet” and combines two main technologies:the NIST RoboCrane [3] and commerciallyavailable suspended scaffolding to produce aneffective concept for worker access to ships,submarines, buildings, and other large objects.The NIST Intelligent Systems Divisiondeveloped the RoboCrane cable-controlledmanipulator over several years [3, 4, 5, 6],during a project for the Defense AdvancedResearch Project Agency (DARPA) that studiedcrane suspended load control. Since the DARPAproject, NIST has expanded RoboCranetechnology into a viable solution to addresslarge-scale manufacturing and many otherchallenges [7]. The RoboCrane applies theStewart-platform parallel-link manipulatortechnology to a reconfigurable, cable-drivensystem. While RoboCrane can lift large, heavyand awkward loads, its stability and