A remote manipulator, also known as a telefactor, telemanipulator, or waldo (after the 1942 short story "Waldo" by Robert A. Heinlein which features a man who invents and uses such devices), [1] is a device which, through electronic, hydraulic, or mechanical linkages, allows a hand-like mechanism to be controlled by a human operator. The purpose of such a device is usually to move or manipulate hazardous materials for reasons of safety, similar to the operation and play of a claw crane game.
In 1945, the company Central Research Laboratories [2] was given the contract to develop a remote manipulator for the Argonne National Laboratory. The intent was to replace devices which manipulated highly radioactive materials from above a sealed chamber or hot cell, with a mechanism which operated through the side wall of the chamber, allowing a researcher to stand normally while working.
The result was the Master-Slave Manipulator Mk. 8, or MSM-8, which became the iconic remote manipulator [3] seen in newsreels and movies, such as The Andromeda Strain or THX 1138 .
Robert A. Heinlein claimed a much earlier origin for remote manipulators. [4] He wrote that he got the idea for "waldos" after reading a 1918 article in Popular Mechanics about "a poor fellow afflicted with myasthenia gravis ... [who] devised complicated lever arrangements to enable him to use what little strength he had." An article in Science Robotics on robots, science fiction, and nuclear accidents [5] discusses how the science fiction waldos are now a major type of real-world robots used in the nuclear industry.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop the first atomic bomb, LANL is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions.
Argonne National Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United States Department of Energy and administered by UChicago Argonne LLC of the University of Chicago. The facility is the largest national laboratory in the Midwest.
Telepresence is the appearance or sensation of a person being present at a place other than their true location, via telerobotics or video.
Telerobotics is the area of robotics concerned with the control of semi-autonomous robots from a distance, chiefly using television, wireless networks or tethered connections. It is a combination of two major subfields, which are teleoperation and telepresence.
Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, also known as SL-1, initially the Argonne Low Power Reactor (ALPR), was a United States Army experimental nuclear reactor in the western United States at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) in Idaho about forty miles (65 km) west of Idaho Falls, now the Idaho National Laboratory. On January 3, 1961, at 9:01 pm MST, an operator fully pulled out the reactor's central control rod, causing the reactor to go from fully shut down to prompt critical. The intense heat from the nuclear reaction expanded the water inside the reactor core, producing extreme water hammer and causing water, steam, reactor components, debris, and fuel to vent from the top of the reactor where the three operators were working. As the water struck the top of the reactor vessel, it propelled the entire reactor vessel to the ceiling of the reactor room where it struck the overhead crane. A supervisor who had been on top of the reactor lid was impaled by an expelled control rod shield plug and pinned to the ceiling. The release of materials hit the two other operators, mortally injuring them as well. The reactor vessel then fell down to its original position.
"Waldo" (1942) is a short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally published in Astounding Magazine in August 1942 under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald. It is available in the 1950 book Waldo & Magic, Inc.. Both stories in that collection involve magic but are otherwise unrelated.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Chalk River Laboratories is a Canadian nuclear research facility in Deep River, about 180 km (110 mi) north-west of Ottawa.
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. Historically, the lab has been involved with nuclear research, although the laboratory does other research as well. Much of current knowledge about how nuclear reactors behave and misbehave was discovered at what is now Idaho National Laboratory. John Grossenbacher, former INL director, said, "The history of nuclear energy for peaceful application has principally been written in Idaho".
Gridlinked is a science fiction novel by British writer Neal Asher. His first novel, it was published by the Macmillan Publishers imprint Pan Books in 2001. It contains elements of the technological inventiveness of hard science-fiction with a more contemporary political plotline. The novel follows the exploits of Earth Central Security agent Ian Cormac, as he attempts to discover who or what is behind the destruction of the Runcible on a remote colony. Cormac drops an investigation into Polity separatists on Cheyne III, and takes the starship Hubris to the ruined world of Samarkand to directly oversee the investigation there. Having been directly "gridlinked" to the Polity A.I. network for too long, Cormac has been slowly losing his humanity, and takes the opportunity of this particular mission to disconnect and solve the mystery the old-fashioned way.
"Solution Unsatisfactory" is a 1941 science fiction alternate history short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It describes the US effort to build a nuclear weapon in order to end the ongoing World War II, and its dystopian consequences to the nation and the world.
In robotics, a manipulator is a device used to manipulate materials without direct physical contact by the operator. The applications were originally for dealing with radioactive or biohazardous materials, using robotic arms, or they were used in inaccessible places. In more recent developments they have been used in diverse range of applications including welding automation, robotic surgery and in space. It is an arm-like mechanism that consists of a series of segments, usually sliding or jointed called cross-slides, which grasp and move objects with a number of degrees of freedom.
The use of nanotechnology in fiction has attracted scholarly attention. The first use of the distinguishing concepts of nanotechnology was "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", a talk given by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959. K. Eric Drexler's 1986 book Engines of Creation introduced the general public to the concept of nanotechnology. Since then, nanotechnology has been used frequently in a diverse range of fiction, often as a justification for unusual or far-fetched occurrences featured in speculative fiction.
Raymond C. Goertz was an American mechanical engineer and an early pioneer in the field of robotics, specifically remote-controlled robots. In 1949, while working for the Atomic Energy Commission at Argonne National Laboratory, Goertz filed a patent for an early master-slave manipulator in order to handle radioactive material. Goertz recognized the value of electrically coupling manipulators and laid the foundations of modern tele-robotics and bilateral force-reflecting positional servomechanisms.
A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion or translational (linear) displacement. The links of the manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain. The terminus of the kinematic chain of the manipulator is called the end effector and it is analogous to the human hand. However, the term "robotic hand" as a synonym of the robotic arm is often proscribed.
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. Robotics is related to the sciences of electronics, engineering, mechanics, and software.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to robotics:
A powered exoskeleton is a mobile machine wearable over all or part of the human body, providing ergonomic structural support, and powered by a system of electric motors, pneumatics, levers, hydraulics or a combination of cybernetic technologies, allowing for sufficient limb movement, and providing increased strength, protection and endurance.
Mallasamudram Subramanyam Ramakumar was an Indian mechanical engineer, scientist and roboticist, known for developing robotic and automation technologies for Indian nuclear and defence purposes. He was the director of Nuclear Fuels, Automation and Manufacturing Group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay. He was the first Head of Division of Remote Handling of Robotics (DRHR) at the organization. He pioneered robotic technology in India. Ramakumar was one of the key persons behind the Pokhran-II test, conducted by India in 1998. It was his team, which developed the online fuelling and coolant channel inspection systems for the power reactors for the 1998 tests.
Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) is a remote handling and robotics test facility located at Culham Science Centre near Oxford, UK, operated by UKAEA. As part of the UK Government's Robotics and Autonomous Systems Strategy (RAS) this is one of the initiatives that is supporting development and growth in remote handling. RACE uses the broad range of expertise from UKAEA and CCFE's past experience in remote handling used on JET.
