HEBI ROBOTICS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: X222-PDCSO1

Description

This project lays the groundwork for a new generation of robots to perform inspection and maintenance operations within confined spaces, difficult-to-reach areas, and hazardous environments.  The cornerstone of these next-generation systems is the agile HEBI Robotics platform.  Already, industrial and academic R&D groups around the world use HEBI’s platform to create customized robotic solutions, and many of our customers have turned to us to create application-specific robot solutions, primarily for industrial inspections and maintenance.   The key to our success, as well as our customers’, lies in the salient features of our technology: modularity at the joint level, highly sensitive ability to control and sense force, and a development suite that facilitates agile development and easy control at the joint or system level.  All of these features make the system capable at developing robots that are adaptable to highly variable workspaces, and able to interact with the environment in a human-like way.  Robotics for inspections and operations within confined, dangerous, or hard-to-reach workspaces are an ideal application for robots composed of the HEBI system, as no two inspections are ever the same and the modularity, as well as the modules, provide customized solutions, for each inspection, that is readily usable by a field technician.     This project will consist of three main tasks: Customer discovery:  HEBI will work with Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC) to identify roughly three high-value inspection and maintenance tasks, presumably in confined spaces, difficult-to-reach spaces, or hazardous environments. Design and build robot systems to address high-value tasks: HEBI will develop robot systems composed of HEBI’s modular robot building blocks to address each of the high-value tasks, then combine the solutions to create a single highly configurable system that can be modified in the field by the Airmen to perform the targeted tasks. Iteration and refinement of user experience:  The key to any successful tool - robotics or otherwise - is that it must solve a problem and be easier / more effective than the alternative.  This is especially challenging in the world of robotics.  The final stages of this project include several iterations of field trials, observation of the users’ experience, and refinement to the interface and mechanics in order to produce a highly configurable, easily deployable solution that addresses a variety of high-value tasks for the AFNWC.