Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021 - 36

Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Square Structural Joint with Robotic Assembly Tool
Applications include portable aerospace structures and terrestrial structures such as
cleanrooms and field hospitals.
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
he square structural joint design en -
ables robotic assembly and has been
designed for high strength to weight, multifunctionality,
and reduced manufacturing
cost. The joint provides in creased axial
stiffness compared to round tubes of the
same width but torsional and bending
strength are in creased as well. Electrical
conductivity and provisions for routing of
wiring or tubing through the joints have
T
been incorporated, enabling greater capability
and a stronger structural design.
Switching to square cross-section joints
provides packaging efficiency along with
numerous improvements for robotic
assembly applications such as providing
rotational registration, robotically compatible
tool designs, both mechanical and visual
indicators to verify locking operation,
preload, and capture spring forces with a
Assembly Tool
Camera and Lights
Passive Gripper
Lock and Unlock Drive
Active Gripper
Joint
a) Conceptual Tool
b) Operator View of Visual Grip Indicator
The conceptual installation tool operating on a joint. (NASA)
unique stop plate in the drive train that can
be designed to default to the assembled
condition without a preload, yet spring
back if forced toward unlocked. After
assembly, preload can be adjusted for security.
Designed for robust assembly, the
robotic tools are built to actuate the joint.
Structural benefits include nearly complete
perimeter contact geometry for
improved structural efficiency, improved
cantilever beam response via linear bending
response about the y and z axes, and
linear torsional response about the x axis.
Additionally, there is better linear axial
response along the x axis due to simple
geometry and large contact surfaces, higher
torsional/torque capability (about the x
axis), higher bending capability about all
axes, higher axial capability, and is more
cost effective to manufacture. It also offers
a bonding strap and treated contact surfaces
that provide electrical conductivity
through the joint.
Grip Visual
Verification
NASA is actively seeking licensees to commercialize
this technology. Please contact
NASA's Licensing Concierge at AgencyPatent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
or call us
at 202-358-7432 to initiate licensing discussions.
Follow this link for more information:
https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LARTOPS-316.
Transport
of Mechanical Energy, Even Through Damaged
Pathways
This work could lead to much more robust devices that continue to operate in spite of damage.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana
ost technologies today rely on devices
that transport energy in the form of
light, radio, or mechanical waves; however,
these waveguiding channels are susceptible
to disorder and damage, either in manufacturing
or after they are deployed in
harsh environments.
M
Researchers have experimentally dem -
onstrated a new way to transport energy,
even through waveguides that are defective
36
Cov
and even if the disorder is a transient phenomenon
in time. This work could lead to
much more robust devices that continue to
operate in spite of damage.
The work demonstrated a topological
pump - a system that produces ondemand,
robust transport of mechanical
energy when it is periodically driven in
time. The researchers built the topological
pump using a one-dimensional, magnetowww.techbriefs.com
ToC
mechanical,
artificial material composed of
springs, masses, and magnets.
The underlying principle is to make
gradual, periodic modulations to the structure
of the chain as a function of time. At
the completion of each period of the
pumping cycle, a single particle must enter
the chain on one end and simultaneously,
a single particle must exit the other end of
the chain. This reliably occurs, even if the
Tech Briefs, June 2021

https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-316 http://www.techbriefs.com http://www.abpi.net/ntbpdfclicks/l.php?202106TBNAV

Tech Briefs Magazine - June 2021

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