William D. Fisher

Apparatus and method for computer-aided design of sheet metal fabricated parts

A CAD system and method for designing sheet metal parts. A proposed design is automatically tested against a set of design rules. Available tools are selected according to criteria computed with reference to the part to the fabricated and then are tested to determine whether they can be used to make desired bends. A fabrication sequence is computed.

Manufacturability tools: an engineer's use and needs

The Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) has successfully incorporated design for manufacturability (DFM) as a company philosophy by disseminating several assembly analysis techniques. HP is using the results of this philosophy to help identify future DFM needs. This work contains a history of DFM tools at HP, a discussion of the contributions, the shortcomings of these tools in the electronics manufacturing environment, and some recommendations to designers of DFM tools. For DFM tools to have a significant impact on manufacturing cost, design engineers must use them throughout the design process. The tools should be easy to use and provide the designer with beneficial analysis and advice.<<ETX>>

Using the HCTL-1000 Motor Control Chip for Coordinated Robot Motions

The HCTL-1000 motor control chip was integrated into a robot programming and control system devloped at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. A printed circuit board that plugs into an HP 9000 computer backplane holds up to four HCTL-1000 chips. Each chip controls one motor in a robot manipulator. Multiple boards are used for robots with more than four joints. Arbitrary robot end effector trajectories are generated in real time which result in a new position set point for each motor every 26 milliseconds. The integral velocity control mode of the HCTL-1000 chips is used to obtain the necessary motor profiles for producing the desired end effector motion.