Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research IFAM in Bremen has created a robot that can go underwater, swim to the underwater cable and carry out the necessary maintenance.
Using today’s robots, the person who controls the robot has a heavy duty because it is really dark down the sea as the robot’s lamp will not help much and moreover the current keeps dragging the robot away from where it is needed to do the job.
Future robots to be created by Fraunhofer Institute will have a sensor like a sense of touch that will help detecting an undersea setting independently. One component in this tangible capability is a strain gauge. If the robot encounters an obstacle, the strain gauge is fainted and the electrical resistance changes. The special feature of our strain gauge is that it is not glued but printed on - which means we can apply the sensor to curved surfaces of the robot.
The single printed strip is just a few ten micrometers wide, that is about half the width of a human hair. Hence, the strain gauges can be applied close to each other and the robot can identify precisely where it is touching an obstacle. The sensor is protected from the salt water by encapsulation.
To produce the strain gauges, the research scientists atomize a solution with nanoparticles to create an aerosol. A software system guides the aerosol stream to the right position. Focusing gas shrouds the beam and ensures that it does not fan out.
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