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Remote manipulator

Device for controlling a hand-like mechanism

Device for controlling a hand-like mechanism

A remote manipulator, also known as a telefactor, telemanipulator, or waldo (after the 1942 short story "Waldo" by Robert A. Heinlein), 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, similar to the operation and play of a claw crane game.

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 the "waldos" used in his story 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." A 2021 article in Science Robotics on robots, science fiction, and nuclear accidents discusses how the science fiction waldos are now a major type of real-world robots used in the nuclear industry.

References

References

  1. [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=23 Technovelgy Science Fiction Dictionary: waldo]
  2. "CRL history".
  3. "Telemanipulator page".
  4. Heinlein, Robert A.. (1957). "The Science Fiction Novel". Advent.
  5. (2021). "Robots, science fiction, and nuclear accidents". AAAS.
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