Project: Testbed-5 - Fluid Power Hand Tools
Leader: Prof. William Durfee (UMN)
Statement of Project Goals
The goal of this project is to develop a series of novel commercial and industrial hand tools that enhance human capability and integrate at a systems level technology developed by the center to prove technical feasibility. The hand tools demonstrate the advantages of compact, portable fluid power for applications where the fluid power machine works cooperatively with the user. The hand tools are powered, portable and non-tethered. The specific goals are to prove technical feasibility of compact pneumatic power supplies and control of complex pneumatic haptic interfaces.
Project’s Role in Support of the Strategic Plan
The key attributes of the hand tools are energy generation, energy storage and energy control, all needed to implement a power tool that is small, light and easy to use. These support the CCEFP strategic plan to open new application solutions based on research from the compactness thrust.
