Performance Motion Devices’ N-series movement controller-drives assist the Dusty AMR keep away from obstacles, ledges, and different risks. | Source: Dusty Robotics
The development trade is below strain. Labor shortages, rising materials prices, and demand for pace and precision are pushing builders to hunt automated options that increase effectivity, security, and sustainability. Dusty Robotics hopes to make use of its know-how to vary this.
In most circumstances, plans are marked in bodily areas utilizing old school means: Depending on the positioning, personnel would possibly use a whole station (a surveying instrument integrating a number of measurement instruments) or maybe simply tape measures and chalk strains to mark the place issues go. The strategy largely unchanged from these used centuries in the past.
Huge stacks of blueprint arduous copies detailing every ground and system are slowly yielding to digital communications, however info continues to be manually communicated onsite, defined Mike Thompson, principal engineer at Dusty Robotics. So too typically, a constructing’s 3D mannequin isn’t what will get constructed. As numerous trades lay out their plans, errors and outdated info typically result in incorrect layouts, rework, and delays.
Dusty Robotics designs the FieldPrinter 2
The ION/CME N-series motion-control drive imparts the Dusty design with the management wanted for exact automated operation. | Source: Performance Motion Devices
Mountain View, Calif.-based startup Dusty Robotics has designed an autonomous cellular robotic (AMR) known as the FieldPrinter 2 to independently map and mark 3D constructing designs onto 2D development flooring with 0.0625-in. accuracy. With it, development groups now not should continually verify their laptops, iPads, and paper plans to know what should be constructed and the place.
Core to the AMR’s operate are two off-the-shelf movement management elements from Performance Motion Devices (PMD). The ION/CME N-series drives present management and energy for the AMR’s two entrance wheels, and extra particularly, the 2 brushless DC electrical motors (BLDCs) driving the wheels. The AMR’s rear wheel has no energetic drive.
The controller drives place the robotic, together with a collection of onboard sensors that present exact location info, together with trackers, encoders, and inertial measurement unit gyroscopes.
“We want continuous motion between all the objects that we print,” mentioned Ryan Dimick, controls engineer at Dusty Robotics. The system should enable for fixed profile modifications because the robotic switches between navigating and printing.”
In reality, the brand new FieldPrinter 2 AMR improves on a earlier iteration with the assistance of the PMD controller-drives. The first iteration’s use of one other vendor’s movement controllers created challenges for the startup‘s builders, together with an incapability to know and rectify errors with out workarounds. The new controller-drive answer addresses these points and suits into the present platform.
More particularly, the PCB-mountable single-axis controller imparts high-performance movement management, community connectivity, and amplification for an all-in-one drive with a built-in processor. So, the robotic can obtain and run code. Plus, the controller-drives give Dusty Robotics visibility and customizability.
“When we ran into an issue, it was always something we could fix,” Dimick mentioned. “We overcame any latencies we had in the past and really set our own timing characteristics for the motors and motor control.”
For instance, Dusty needed to have the ability to modify the management loop and field-oriented management loop parameters, he added.
“[Dimick] is constantly pulling data into spreadsheets, graphing it, and looking at all the inputs and outputs to the motor controller — and understanding what small tweaks we need,” Thompson defined. “That ability to bring graphs into alignment with his expectations — that was a big challenge before.”
Dimick added, “We’re working on a millisecond-level time scale. Getting information very quickly is important for all the tuning and high-level controls, and we were not able to reach that prior to PMD.”
PMD’s ION/CME N-series movement management drive is instrumental to the robotic’s place accuracy. PMD’s N-series drives additionally give the engineers entry to inner management parameters to customise and troubleshoot the design. | Source: Dusty Robotics
PMD helps Dusty resolve edge circumstances
Dusty Robotics carefully collaborated with the controller-drive provider to resolve challenges. “Anytime I was integrating the controller into the product and had questions, they were quick to jump on a call, and they even released a custom debug version for me to temporarily use for diagnosing an issue,” mentioned Dimick.
This collaboration additionally knowledgeable the AMR producer’s industrial-communication selection.
The controller drive helps communication through Ethernet, CAN, RS-232, RS-485, and serial peripheral interface. Dusty needed sure communications coming in a barely later model of the controller-drive.
“So, we waited, and I think we were one of the first to really use it,” he recalled. “Then we helped [the supplier] debug the firmware, and they quickly returned new versions for us to use.”
A black diagram of the PMD N-Series ION. | Source: Performance Motion Devices
The Dusty FieldPrinter 2 has a laser tracker that constantly reviews AMR place — however typically the tracker doesn’t have a view of the robotic, so operation is blind. But the controller-drive (at the side of the robotic’s sensors) retains the AMR on observe.
“When the robot is printing within a blind spot, not visible to the tracker, it’s relying on the inertial measurement unit and encoders that are coming through the controller. It’s relying on all the other sensors for five, 10, 15 seconds of continuous printing,” Thompson defined. “Then, when it comes out of the blind spot, it tells the tracker exactly where it is. We need to give that tracker the accuracy so it can very quickly and precisely acquire the signal.”
Here, sub-millisecond timing precision helps the AMR deal with blind spots so widespread at cluttered jobsites. “That information and smooth predictable motion lets the AMR accurately estimate its location and continue printing without line-of-sight to the laser tracker,” mentioned Dimick. This blind-spot printing is the largest enchancment of the brand new AMR model.
The controller-drive can even apply an digital brake to the AMR’s motors. A little bit of Dusty’s personal software program, working on one of many controller’s chips, serves as a watchdog. If it loses communication to the robotic, it powers down the motors.
As the corporate identify implies, Dusty Robotics’ system should function in soiled environments and in every kind of climate — within the Arizona solar, in addition to the 14th ground of a Chicago constructing below development when it’s -20° F — and with unknown obstacles and spotty Internet connectivity.
Unlike competing options that go away delicate electronics uncovered, PMD mentioned the controller-drive used within the FieldPrinter 2 comes normal with an enclosed package deal to guard inner elements. Future iterations of the robotic may see greater ranges of integration.
“PMD provides a pathway for us,” Thompson mentioned. “They provide the controllers themselves and can open their controllers and give us access to the independent parts to let us create a highly integrated solution.”
“It’s something that we haven’t really pursued but lets us preserve the investment that the engineers have made … and still make the system faster and lighter than it is today,” he added.
About the writer
Chuck Lewin is the founder and CEO of Performance Motion Devices. Launched in 1992, PMD is headquartered close to Boston. It is a developer of movement management know-how for all times sciences, robotics, and industrial automation. PMD delivers a broad vary of superior digital movement management merchandise, together with built-in circuits, digital amplifiers, digital drives, and boards to a worldwide buyer base.
Editor’s notice: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report sibling website, Motion Control Tips.