Square One

The Tri-Sphere concept has been adapted to serve as the basis for an innovative new type of dexterous manipulator. The manipulator was fitted with a standard two-jaw gripper, and a small digital camera and distance measuring interferometer were integrated into the gripper's palm. A sophisticated, LabView-based controls architecture provides the system's operator with almost unlimited operational flexibility and provides a high level of supervised autonomy.

The Tri-Sphere's rigid, prismatic geometry endows the manipulator with an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio. Unlike the hexapod, it is possible to create Tri-Sphere manipulators with strongly asymmetric work envelopes. Also, instead of its actuators being distributed along six pivoting struts, all of a Tri-Sphere's actuators are clustered together making it much easier to "ruggedize" the manipulator.