The Edinbugh versatile layout and assembly program

A computer-controlled versatile layout and assembly system has recently been programmed at the School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh. The equipment used, locally known as Freddy, consists of a moveable table, a mechanical hand suspended over the table and two fixed TV cameras, all connected via an 8K Honeywell 316 to a timeshared 128K ICL 4130 running POP-2 programs. The hand is fixed above the table but can be raised and lowered, and rotated about a vertical axis. It has two palms, with force sensors, which are parallel to each other, and can be tilted about a horizontal axis, and moved together and apart. There is an obliquely mounted, wide-angle TV camera which is used to scan the table, and a vertically mounted one which is used to examine in detail smaller areas of the table (See Figure 1).