plus 3, Space Tech Improves Auto Assembly - Redorbit.com

Space Tech Improves Auto Assembly - Redorbit.com
Spacecraft dockings improve car assembly - PhysOrg
Town asks state to keep Alamo Lake Park open - Wickenburg Sun
At Issue - Product Design & Development

Space Tech Improves Auto Assembly - Redorbit.com

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 09:21 AM PST

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 January 2010, 12:15 CST

The next car comes down the conveyor belt ready for the dashboard to be added. Speed and position are controlled as if it were a spacecraft docking automatically with the International Space Station. Invented by entrepreneurs at ESA's Business Incubation Centre, a new system using similar docking technology precisely fits the dashboard into the car.

Car assembly lines have come a long way since the first production line was introduced in 1914 by Henry Ford at his plant in Michigan, USA.

Now Volkswagen's Autoeuropa factory in Palmela, Portugal, is using space technology to control its assembly line.

Developed by MDUSpace at ESA's Business Incubation Centre in the Netherlands, the system is based on the object recognition and tracking concepts used for the automated docking of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). It was installed at the Palmela factory last year and is now being evaluated.

Space technology applied to automobile production

"Automotive assembly lines are based on moving conveyor belts that transport the cars to be assembled at a steady, but not constant, speed. The car is assembled by workers or robotic machines at each assembly station along the way," explained Miguel Brito, business developer of MDUSpace.

"When you have to attach a module to the car, for instance the car's dashboard, the mounting is done by a manipulator – a large manually controlled robotic part-positioner. As the cars move along the belt, the manipulator needs to move at the exact same speed. If it goes any slower or faster than the car, it could scratch or damage it."

The traditional methods of solving this problem are either to place the manipulator on the car during the assembly process, which can stress the vehicle's structure, or to synchronize their speeds, which often requires costly and complicated control and wiring systems.

The new system provides a novel solution to synchronize the manipulators with the car. It combines a live camera feed with software for object recognition, derived from spacecraft docking systems, to make sure the manipulator and the car go at exactly the same speed and are in the same position with respect to each other at all times.

It works like ATV docking with the ISS. For the final approach and docking, ATV uses a camera to identify light pulses reflected from a set of special targets on the ISS.

By analyzing the reflected patterns, the control software determines the precise distance and angle to the docking port.

In the car assembly process, the operator chooses reference points on the car as targets for the object-recognition system. It then calculates the distance from the manipulator to the car and automatically holds their relative position.

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Image 1: Car on assembly line. Credits: Volkswagen Media Services

Image 2: The main components of an assembly manipulator installed with the MDUSpace automatic docking system, on a moving assembly line in a car factory. Credits: MDUSpace

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Spacecraft dockings improve car assembly - PhysOrg

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 08:31 AM PST

Car assembly lines have come a long way since the first production line was introduced in 1914 by Henry Ford at his plant in Michigan, USA.

Now Volkswagen's Autoeuropa factory in Palmela, Portugal, is using space technology to control its assembly line.

Spacecraft dockings improve car assembly
Enlarge

The main components of an assembly manipulator installed with the MDUSpace automatic docking system, on a moving assembly line in a car factory. Credits: MDUSpace

Space technology applied to automobile production

"When you have to attach a module to the car, for instance the car's dashboard, the mounting is done by a manipulator - a large manually controlled robotic part-positioner. As the cars move along the belt, the manipulator needs to move at the exact same speed. If it goes any slower or faster than the car, it could scratch or damage it."

The traditional methods of solving this problem are either to place the manipulator on the car during the assembly process, which can stress the vehicle's structure, or to synchronise their speeds, which often requires costly and complicated control and wiring systems.

The new system provides a novel solution to synchronise the manipulators with the car. It combines a live camera feed with software for object recognition, derived from spacecraft docking systems, to make sure the manipulator and the car go at exactly the same speed and are in the same position with respect to each other at all times.

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About every 17 months, ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) delivers 7.7 tonnes of equipment, food, air and water to the International Space Station (ISS). ATV has a system for fully automated docking with the ISS. A direct laser link with the station allows ATV to start accurate navigation to its target using GPS technology. From a distance of 249 m, the ATV computers use videometer and telegoniometer (laser-pulsed instruments that calculate the distance and orientation to the ISS) for final approach and docking. The approach slows to 7 cm/s, and the docking is completed autonomously with a precision of 1.5 cm while the two spacecraft are circling the Earth at 28 000 km/h. Credits: ESA

It works like ATV docking with the ISS. For the final approach and docking, ATV uses a camera to identify light pulses reflected from a set of special targets on the ISS.

By analysing the reflected patterns, the control software determines the precise distance and angle to the docking port.

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Town asks state to keep Alamo Lake Park open - Wickenburg Sun

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 06:36 AM PST

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At Issue - Product Design & Development

Posted: 19 Jan 2010 11:41 PM PST

By Roger L. Lundblad, Ph.D., Lundblad Biotech

I have been pondering the issue of creativity - or more accurately the lack of creativity over the past couple of years as I have compiled several encyclopedic works.

While science tends to remain clever, there seems to be an absence of creativity in the biological sciences; physics continues to be creative and such activity may increase if the Higgs boson is not discovered. I have a very bright nephew (Ph.D. Caltech) who is now pushing ultracold (nanoKelvin) Rubidium atoms around with lasers in ways which could revolutionize the way computing is done– but while basic physics is doing well, it does not seem to be translating into creative solutions to problems of water, environment, energy storage, etc.

On the other hand, innovation runs rampant giving me a phone that can do anything easily except make a phone call.

Early in my post-doctoral studies, one of my older and wiser colleagues observed that there were two sure ways to get famous in biological sciences; one was to discover a technique which is used (and cited) extensively such as a method for the measurement of protein concentration.

Another approach is to name a process or concept such as proteomics, biomarkers, systems biology, etc; it does seem to matter that the process, concept, material, etc., may not have changed – changing my name to Dick Butkus or Brian Urlacher or Bernardo Harris is not going to change me into an NFL linebacker. There is one protein (leukocyte protein 1) which has had at least four name changes in the fifteen year. There is a James Carville quote that I could use here but won't. Changing the name of a process, product, or concept does not mean improvement.

I attended two professional meetings last year; one was concerned with biosimilars in biotechnology while the other was a large multidisciplinary meeting which used to be held in Atlantic City.

The first convinced me that biotechnology, like the motion picture industry in Tinseltown, is stuck in a creativity crisis and is developing sequels rather than new productions. I should note that I grew up close to the studios in SoCal and have lived there on occasion in the past years. I was fortunate to be there during the era of extreme creativity.

At the second meeting, I attended a lecture which briefly discussed the role of serendipity in the evolution of medicine observing that while computer-guided combinatorial chemistry has greatly increased our ability to screen potential drug candidates, it is not clear that it has improved our creativity or productivity.

Likewise, the speaker observed that while text-mining for literature searches increases our ability to screen the increasing volume of literature, it does strip out context.

One of my distinguished colleagues has observed that while electronic journals enable us to do our scholarly reading in our pajamas with a glass of wine, does not necessarily mean that we are as effective as we were twenty years ago when I would walk into the library and sit a table with colleagues sorting through the new journals which had arrived that day.

The literature is full of articles and books on creativity and innovation sometimes not distinguishing between the two activities. After consulting several dictionaries, it would seem as if innovation is the alteration of current by the introduction of something new while creativity is the action of bringing something new into existence.

While a purist could argue that only the artist or musician can be truly creative. In my own discipline, I would argue that the Watson-Crick double-helix was creative while automated amino acid analysis was innovation. Both have contributed greatly to modern biotechnology.

In several of my previous lives, I have been involved in discussions of how to improve innovation or creativity, how to teach innovation or creativity, creating the impression that innovation and or creativity can be structured and that centers for innovation can be built.

First, I want to dispense with the idea that creativity can somehow be managed – it can't! In the United States, our educational process is intended to eliminate creativity from the first experience of being told to "color inside the lines!"

Creativity happens! – The discovery of the structure of benzene by Kekule and, more recently, the discovery of the polymerase chain reaction by Kerry Mullis are other examples of creativity. So, what can we say about innovation?

Professor Markus Pohmann of Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg published a thoughtful paper on the innovation process in 2005 which I recommend. This paper contained "The Six Rules of Innovation" – the best rule (in my opinion) is that there is no general rule.

The next is that innovation requires time, effort and money but provision of same is not a guarantee. I would also agree that you can't create an "innovation organization" and provision of incentives (money, awards, etc.) is actually counterproductive.

I would argue that the most important factor in innovation is the sincere and active support of senior management such as that in the fuzzy front end approach.

There usually is a disclaimer in articles acknowledging professional relationships; mine is that I am a "fuddy-duddy" of the slide rule generation as discussed in Science (July 4, 2008).

Dr. Roger L. Lundblad is recognized as an expert in the area of protein chemistry, biotechnology manufacturing process validation, GLP laboratory compliance, product development and cGMP issues. Dr. Lundblad is the author of some 120+ publications and is also the author of best-selling books in the area of protein chemistry.

For more information visit www.lundbladbiotech.com or contact Dr. Roger Lundblad at lundbladr@bellsouth.net.

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