Objective
This objective of Ihis project is to provide dexterous end effectors for use in the offshore industries. By making one atmosphere diving suits and remotely operated vehicle able to carry out the majority of the tasks currently carried out by divers, this endeffector will reduce the need for the latter. This will improve safety and reduce operating costs: daily rates for vessels are very high and present systems are very slow. It will also establish European manufacturers in an important area of undenvater technology which is currently dominated by America. and provide employment for skilled engineering workers in coastal areas where the collapse of fishing and shipbuilding has caused severe unemployment. The end effector will have three similar digits corresponding to the thumb, forefinger and the remaining three fingers of a human hand; the thumb will be opposable, so that the end effeclor can use umnodified divers' power tools and carry out similar operations as well as simply grasping objects. The end effeclor will be controlled by electrical signals from a metal glove will' Ihe same geometry, worn by the operator. It will be powered by a constant speed pump driving Electro Rheological (ER) fluid (a liquid whose flow resistance increases when it is exposed to an electric field) around a closed circuit. The pressure distribution within this circuit will be varied by changing the voltage applied to fixed plates within the flow, thus providing realtime proportional control with simple, robust equipment. Brakes on the joints of the control glove, also operated by ER fluid, will provide direct tactile information of the force being exerted by the end effector. Initial development will concentrate on a single digit, uhich will be copied to give a complete end effector and control glove for surface and underwater testing. The research fits Areas 1.1.3.M 1.4.2.M and 2.1.2.M of the BRITE EURAM Framework 4 Programme. The Consortium consists of one SME from Norway and three from the UK . Two of these supply goods and services to the offshore oil industry, one is an end user who operates one atmosphere diving suits and one designs and manufactures prototypes and has a great deal of experience in building ER devices. There is also one non SME associate, the Irish subsidiary of a major German chemical company, who manufactures ER fluid. The RTD providers are a French technical university, and a British search and development company specialising in ER technology .
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- engineering and technologycivil engineeringwater engineeringocean engineering
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- social sciencessociologysocial issuesunemployment
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringnaval engineeringsea vessels
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
AB9 1FW ABERDEEN
United Kingdom