VECNA TECHNOLOGIES, INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: N101-050

Description

A pneumatic hammer chisel end effector will be developed that uses a simple yet novel fluid routing system. The lightweight device is easily attached to existing MTRS arms and can generate the impact forces required to fracture concrete and packed soil. The end effector requires no modification to the operator control unit and only two connections to the MTRS: a mechanical interface to hold the tool and a pneumatic air supply which is carried on the MTRS chassis. Vibrations are damped using passive mechanical components to absorb energy that would otherwise be transmitted to the MTRS. The goal of the proposed effort is the optimization and fabrication of the innovative shuttling technology and the creation of a complete tool system. This work will include subsystem proof-of-concept testing using hardware that can be adjusted and optimized, and a series of increasingly complete versions, culminating in a fully production ready set of hardware. The option period will expand upon the results of Phase II testing and manufacture a small production batch of hammer chisel end effectors that will be used for extensive user training and testing. These versions will be TRL7 and ready for large scale production, enabling commercialization of the device.