Design World – August 2019

84 August 2019 http://www.designworldonline.com DESIGN WORLD

The Robot Report

However, the Guardian XO Max is

designed primarily for civilian use.

“Because we’ve had almost 19

years of interaction and experience

with defense programs, military needs

did influence our design, but as we

look forward today, we’re tailoring our

requirements to how robots interface

with industrial environments,”

Beaufait told The Robot Report. “We’re

looking at manufacturing, logistics,

and construction -- those sectors are

driving a lot of our specifications.”

Managing power requirements,

components

“We then added some forms of energy

recovery, and in 2010, we had a much

more packaged unit,” said Beaufait. “Two

big things have changed since then. The

first was the source of energy -- you

don’t want hydraulics oil at 3,000 PSI in

industrial environments, so we had to go

electric for energetic autonomy. We’re all-

electric now.”

“The second things was reducing the

power,” he recalled. “We expect the final

product to be less than 500 W, down from

6,800 W.”

Sarcos relies on a combination of

supply chain partners and custom design.

“At the actuator or linkage level of the

robot, there’s an enormous amount of

bespoke design,” said Beaufait. “We have

strong relationships with motor suppliers,

electronic board suppliers, and machining

houses. If a potential supplier has

something that’s better than the industry

standard, we’d love to talk with them.”

“They meet the specifications we

provide, and we don’t have a lot of off-

the-shelf components -- just some

sensors,” he said. “We’ve been pretty

fortunate in finding partners who can help

reduce the computer and power demands.

We’re doing some pretty unique things to

use minimal power.”

“Another aspect of our business model

is how we’re using our global supply

chain,” he noted. “We’re initially handling

DESIGN WORLD http://www.designworldonline.com August 2019 85

The Raytheon Sarcos XOS

2 military exoskeleton was

released in 2010.

| Raytheon

The Guardian XO Max

can lift 200 lb.

| Sarcos

“We’re looking at

manufacturing, logistics,

and construction -- those

sectors are driving a lot

of our specifications.”

-- Chris Beaufait, COO, Sarcos

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