Remote manipulator

Manipulator arms inside the Hot Bay of the Engine Maintenance Assembly & Disassembly Facility, in Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site.

A remote manipulator, also known as a telefactor, telemanipulator, or waldo (after the short story "Waldo" by Robert A. Heinlein which features a man who invents and uses such devices), is a device which, through electronic, hydraulic, or mechanical linkages, allows a hand-like mechanism to be controlled by a human operator. The purpose of such a device is usually to move or manipulate hazardous materials for reasons of safety.

History

In 1945, the company Central Research Laboratories was given the contract to develop a remote manipulator for the Argonne National Laboratory. The intent was to replace devices which manipulated highly radioactive materials from above a sealed chamber or hot cell, with a mechanism which operated through the side wall of the chamber, allowing a researcher to stand normally while working.

The result was the Master-Slave Manipulator Mk. 8, or MSM-8, which became the iconic remote manipulator seen in newsreels and movies, such as the Andromeda Strain or THX 1138.

Robert A. Heinlein claimed a much earlier origin for remote manipulators. He wrote that he got the idea for "waldos" after reading a 1918 article in Popular Mechanics about "a poor fellow afflicted with myasthenia gravis ... [who] devised complicated lever arrangements to enable him to use what little strength he had."

See also

• Glovebox
• Hot cell
• Dextre
• Teleoperation
• Telerobotics
• Avatar (computing)
• Pantograph

External links

• Central Research Laboratories web site
• A video of a Remote Manipulator being used to make an origami crane [1]
• Master-slave manipulator at Argonne National Laboratory [2]

• Technovelgy telemanipulator page
• CRL history
• Telemanipulator page