Text b engineering with cad

CAD is an important tool of many large industries, but it can also make a small company more profitable. For example, Grecon Manufacturing Co., a small engineering and consulting company, depends heavily on a PC- based CAD system to design automated production operations. In fact, Grecon's use of CAD led to a dramatic change in the way the company does business. Originally, Grecon was a metalworking shop, and the owner, Gregory Roberts, used a CAD system for many purposes: to design parts for production, analyze customer orders and blueprints before turning them over to machinists, and measure the least-cost size of sheet metal blanks required to produce a finished part. Mr. Roberts discovered, however, that his design skills with the CAD system were in sufficient demand for him to specialize in the engineering and design side of the business.

Today, Mr. Roberts designs production devices that automate secondary manufacturing operations. For example, if two metal plates are to be joined by a spring as part of a production process, Mr. Roberts uses CAD to design a production device that will automatically insert the spring. He does this by using CAD to draw the device to scale and then using the computer to check any problems with the design. If necessary, he subcontracts the actual production of the device to a third party. Designing a part correctly the first time, before it goes into production, is crucial to profitably creating a part. As Mr. Roberts puts it, "A mistake in designing the part costs you three times the amount of money— not just double—because you have to spend the time to undo the mistake and then to make the part over again." For Grecon, VersaCAD is a great help in avoiding these costly mistakes.

VersaCAD is one of several popular CAD packages that can be used for sophisticated design work on a personal computer.

Source: John Pallatto, "CAD System Makes a Profit," PC Week

Text c help for nurses from helpmate

If you have ever been hospitalized, you know that nurses and other health professionals can use all the help they can get. Now, in ten different hospitals, nurses are receiving help from a 4 1\2-foot-tall HelpMate robot built by Transitions Research, Inc. This robot performs many of the tasks that often take nurses away from their primary task of caring for the sick, including transporting dietary items, sterile supplies, pharmaceuticals, and blood and human liquids from the operating room. At Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, a HelpMate prototype named "Rosco" has been delivering dinner trays for the dietary department since 1987.

The HelpMate robot does not require any type of fixed guidance system. Instead, the hospital's floor plan is stored in the robot's memory, and it is able to calculate distances between walls and intersections to guide it. This type of navigation is combined with vision, sonar, and radio frequency. For example, Rosco controls elevators by using radio frequency remote control. When the HelpMate robot senses a nonmoving obstacle, it stops and computes a course around the obstacle; for moving obstacles, such as patients or staff members, Rosco simply stops, allows the person to move, then continues on his way. When the robot arrives at its destination, it uses 1 of 16 messages to tell its human user what to do next.

Transitions Research, Inc., hopes eventually to sell HelpMate for home use and is designing a companion robot for outdoor work.

Sources: "HelpMate Is on the Way," Electronic House