Tiny robots may revolutionize factories

May 14, 1996
Web posted at: 9:50 p.m. EDT

From Correspondent Dick Wilson

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Just as Henry Ford's assembly line revolutionized the automobile industry at the turn of 20th century, an innovation under development at a Carnegie Mellon University lab could transform the 21st century factory.

Researchers are studying a plan to market tiny robots to do precise factory jobs, such as assembling small electronic products like cameras and small computers in a factory the size of a tabletop.

The plan transforms a traditional robot, which weighs up to 150 pounds, into a machine one-tenth of that weight and 100 times as precise.

This new technology could save manufacturers enormous amounts of money, since it will decrease the time and resources needed to build the physical factories while it helps companies stay a step ahead of quickly changing technology.

Additionally, the robotic factories could be custom built out of pre-made parts, like building blocks, lessening the construction time even more.

Designers hope that one day, factory owners will order the components they need for a plant over the Internet and set up different aspects of the assembly in cities all over the world.

Carnegie Mellon's Dr. Ralph Hollis explained the future hopes for the robotic factories. "A designer of such a factory, for assembly of these kinds of products, could be located in one city and access robotic modules which are built by other manufacturers in other cities," he said.

Researchers are waiting for cyberspace quirks to be worked out before modular robots connect workers in different places.

The almost instantaneous interaction between work stations and the quickly built, customized factories could give businesses a jump on competition, since part of what slows technology is the time it takes to build the factory.

Hollis said technology today is moving so fast it can become outdated by the time an average factory is built. (119K AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound)

In contrast, the robotic factories could be on-line in as little time as one week, giving manufacturers the edge over technological leaps, he said.

The Carnegie Mellon researchers say they hope to have the robotic factories perfected in six to eight years.

Related sites:

• Carnegie Mellon University
• Ralph Hollis home page at Carnegie Mellon