Linear Delta Robot Platform for Increased Workspace and Mobility

Technology Licensing Opportunity - This is not a procurement. Linear Delta Robot PlatformModified for Increased Workspace and Mobility   Opportunity:   Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the Linear Delta Robot Platform technology.Background:   Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) scanning systems have many applications including pipeline welds, magnetic resonance imaging, airplane turbine blades, and reactor fuel. Conventional NDE systems with ample levels of precision, speed, and flexibility are often large, bulky, and relatively immobile, thus requiring items of interest to first fit within a size constraint and be transported to the system. A new platform is needed that can produce the same precision, speed, and flexibility without requiring an overly large and immobile design. Description:    Researchers at INL have

developed a modified Linear Delta Robot platform to overcome the limitations of conventional NDE systems. Linear Delta Robots have previously not been adopted in such applications because their kinematics are rather complex, and their conventional workspace is limited by their surrounding guideposts. INL’s platform locates all the linear motors on one side of the workspace, thus centralizing the geometry and system weight and making it more geometrically and inertially compact. Consequently, the available workspace formerly blocked by the posts becomes available, the device can be deployed in more restricted locations, and the configuration allows longer linear rails to be employed, which can reach into constrained environments (e.g. underwater radiological environment).Applications:   Applications include Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) systems, 3D additive manufacturing, welding and user interfaces.Advantages:    The INL system’s compact form factor promises high mobility and more accommodating to the size, orientation, and location of objects which it will interact with while still maintaining the stiffness, precision, and speed of a conventional serial style scanning system.Impact:           This solution’s compact form factor improves the workspace, versatility, and mobility of conventional delta and steward platforms while maintaining the high precision and speed characteristics, which make them prominent in pick-and-place operations, additive manufacturing, and precision positioning systems. The geometric augmentation allows these benefits to be realized by the enormous number of applications satisfied by serial arm and gantry type robots.Development:  The device has been fabricated and developed to full functionality.IP Status:         US Patent Application No. 16/191,135, “Linear Delta Systems, Hexapod Systems, and Related Methods.”INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available.Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Kala Majeti at suryakala.majeti@inl.gov.