WORLD OF TEST
VW’S DYNAMIC SAFETY ZONES KEEP HUMANS SAFE
Safe working between robots and people is being ensured by highly advanced interactive – or dynamic – safety zones. Colour-coding gives the
employee a clear and simple indication of the safe area without any impact on the robot (green). But the safety zones are dynamically adjusted in response to the movement of the robot: if the robot is working in the background, far away from the position of the employee, the green, yellow and red zones are moved accordingly. If the employee is in the
yellow zone, the movement of the robot is severely decelerated and may be stopped in the red zone. This means the person is absolutely safe and has complete clarity concerning
the safety zone at all times. For test purposes, and
together with Volkswagen’s partners – KUKA, Keyence Deutschland and Fraunhofer IFF – Dr Martin Gallinger, who is responsible for robot applications in Volkswagen Group Production, has developed a prototype fit for use in series production. “To date, we have been
concerned chiefly with cooperation with lightweight robots that weigh significantly less and carry lighter loads,” he said. “Now we want to make industrial robots fit for cooperation with people. They can relieve the burden on human workers, as large industrial robots can lift much heavier parts and pass them to people.”
❱❱ Detecting blockages in Pitots from such things as insects, inset, might prevent aircraft accidents, according to Bristol University
WARNING PILOTS
Pitots, which provide airspeed data, have played a role in several aircraft accidents, including the fatal Air France Flight 447 in 2009. Most recently they are suspected in the crash of the Saratov Airlines Antonov An-148 that crashed near Moscow on Sunday 11 February 2018, killing all 71 people on board. New research by aerospace
❱❱ Colour-coded safety zones offers guidance to employee and robot alike
engineers at the University of Bristol has found that an acoustic blockage-detection system could prevent future accidents by making pilots aware of a blocked Pitot before a situation becomes critical. Acoustic methods have been
used for detecting blockages in pipes and even the ears of new- born babies for many years. The study set out to discover if similar methods could be used for real aircraft Pitot tubes, which can contain irregular shapes and passages, without needing a very complicated detection method. The approach has been
proposed before, but no substantial data, either experimental or simulated, has been published until now. The researchers wanted to find out if it would be possible to detect common blockage types that aircraft face, including tape, ice and insects.
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING GOES FOR OLYMPIC GOLD
Team USA is collaborating with Stratasys to power design and development of complex, composite layup and sacrificial tooling – enabling luge track speeds to reach nearly 90mph. Compared with traditional
manufacturing, 3D printing drives significant cost savings, dramatically advancing speed, performance, and customisation of competitive racing sleds tailored to the athlete’s body. The American luge team, competing in Pyeongchang,
South Korea this winter, is tapping into a wide range of high-performance materials from Stratasys to 3D print key layup and sacrificial tools used during manufacturing of carbon- fibre composite sleds. The advanced functionality of
FDM composite lay up tooling enables an unprecedented level of customisation not possible with standard composite fabrication. The process was initially used to manufacture engineering
4 /// Environmental Engineering /// March 2018
mandrels for the racing team’s Doubles Tower – a composite structure at the sled’s front, used to accurately position riders’ legs during competition. This is extremely difficult to
fabricate because of complex, trapped-tool geometry. Using the Stratasys ST-130 sacrificial (wash-out) tooling material, team designers were able to 3D print the mandrel, layup and cure the composite structure, and wash-out the tooling material – all in less than a week.
Based on the success of
Doubles Tower construction, Team USA has pushed the technology even further by 3D printing the entire sled body layup tool. This particular design incorporates a removable middle section, allowing tool length to adjust based on each rider’s height. Driven by these efforts
during prototyping, designers are currently using this same tooling for final sled components during competition.
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