Tech Briefs Magazine - November 2021 - 49

The Authority
in Measurement
NON CONTACT
DISPLACEMENT
MEASUREMENT
 Laser sensors
 Eddy current sensors
 Capacitive sensors
 Confocal sensors
A fully integrated robotic arm fuses visual data from a camera and radio frequency (RF) information
from an antenna to find and retrieve objects, even when they are buried under a pile and fully
out of view. (Image courtesy of the researchers)
where the item is, it would need to swing
its arm widely around the room, taking
additional measurements to come up
with the exact location, which is slow and
inefficient.
The team used reinforcement learning
to train a neural network that can optimize
the robot's trajectory to the object.
In such learning, the algorithm is trained
through trial and error with a reward system.
In the case of RFusion, the optimization
algorithm was rewarded when it limited
the number of moves it had to make
to localize the item and the distance it
had to travel to pick it up.
Once the system identifies the exact
spot, the neural network uses combined
RF and visual information to predict how
the robotic arm should grasp the object
including the angle of the hand and the
width of the gripper and whether it must
remove other items first. It also scans the
item's tag one last time to make sure it
picked up the right object.
In the future, the researchers hope to
increase the speed of the system so it can
move smoothly, rather than stopping periodically
to take measurements. This would
enable RFusion to be deployed in a fastpaced
manufacturing or warehouse setting.
Beyond its potential industrial uses, a
system like this could even be incorporated
into future smart homes to assist people
with any number of household tasks.
For more information, contact Abby
Abazorius at abbya@mit.edu; 617-253-2709.
Laser Jolts Microscopic Electronic
Robots into Motion
Incorporating semiconductor components, microscopic
robots are made to walk with standard electronic signals.
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
A
team created microscopic robots
that incorporate semiconductor
com ponents, allowing them to be controlled
- and made to walk - with standard
electronic signals. The robots are
about 5 microns thick, 40 microns wide,
and range from 40 to 70 microns in
Tech Briefs, November 2021
Cov
length - roughly the same size as mi -
croorganisms like paramecium. These
robots provide a template for building
even more complex versions that utilize
silicon-based intelligence, can be massproduced,
and may someday travel
through human tissue and blood.
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ToC
COLOR SENSORS
 Universal color sensors
 Color sensors for special surfaces
 LED analyzers
IR TEMPERATURE
MEASUREMENT
 Online sensors
 Thermal imagers
 Hand held devices
Contact our application engineers:
Phone +1/919 787 9707
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Tech Briefs Magazine - November 2021

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