George B Folchi, 6858 Merryall Rd, Northville, CT 06776

4001556, Jan 4, 1977

Apr 7, 1975

5/565930

George A. Folchi - Yorktown Heights NY
Sherman S. Wang - Mohegan Lake NY
Peter M. Will - Norwalk CT
Moshe M. Zloof - White Plains NY

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

B25J 900
G06F 1546

235151

A mechanical manipulator which includes fingers under the control of a computer, antenna sensing means mounted on such fingers and extended and retracted from the fingers under the control of the computer, means for detecting the contact or proximity of the extended antenna sensing means with a workpiece, means responsive to the antenna sensing means for retracting the sensing means from interference with the workpiece and for adjusting the control of the fingers. The fingers are adapted for X, Y and Z linear motions and provides pitch, yaw and roll angular motion. The retractable antenna sensing means resembles a whisker which extends from the finger and makes contact with or approaches the workpiece. The antenna sensing means may include a retractable pneumatic back pressure sensor via the back pressure of a fluid in the supply, created when the fluid impinges on the workpiece. The retractable antenna whisker bends more readily than the rigid finger.

3948093, Apr 6, 1976

Jun 30, 1975

5/591998

George Arthur Folchi - Yorktown Heights NY
Glenmore Lorraine Shelton - Carmel NY
Sherman Sheau-Ming Wang - Mohegan Lake NY

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G01L 516

73133R

A six degree of freedom force transducer is provided on a manipulator's hand and includes a plurality of I-beam modules having strain gauges on the flat surfaces of the thin legs of each I-beam for measuring the bending moments of each leg. According to one embodiment, a pair of strain gauges are located on each side of the leg, providing a total of four gauges in each leg. The end bells of each I-beam are adapted to be rigidly interconnected with either other I-beams, structural members of the manipulator fingers, the drive member for the manipulator, or to intermediate coupling blocks designed to rigidly interconnect I-beams. A plurality of I-beams and interconnecting blocks can be connected in various configurations to provide a determination by the strain gauges of the six components of forces and moments which are applied by forces and moments on the fingers of the manipulator system. The I-beams and interconnecting blocks are arranged in x-y-z orthogonal directions such that the structural stiffness is in the same order in different directions. The moment at each basic module can be measured by the voltage output of a bridge associated with the strain gauges.