Vancouver, BC: Genesis Robotics, a company founded to build the world’s fastest, safest robots, announced today that it will focus on actuators in its efforts to disrupt and expand the robotics market.
Actuators are similar to human joints and muscles, providing a robot with movement, power and control. Genesis Robotics Chief Technology Officer James Klassen said that actuators have not kept pace with the development of the computer-based electronics that control robots.
“Today’s robotic actuators are built with traditional electric drives that have not changed much in half a century,” said Klassen. “These traditional motors work well for rotating machines, like saw mills and bread mixers, but their performance characteristics are not well suited to the requirements of robots. These performance shortcomings force engineers to include gearboxes, pulleys and drive belts in current robot designs.”
“Our research team has made several fundamental discoveries which have enabled us to design a robotic actuator that doesn’t require gearboxes, pulleys or drive belts.”
“Simplifying robot design by eliminating gearboxes, pulleys and drive belts will result in faster, safer robots. Our actuator will also allow engineers to design robots that are less expensive and more reliable.” added Klassen.
Klassen is working on disrupting his third major market. Earlier, his developments in the areas of snowboard and bicycle suspension helped to revolutionize these markets. When surfboard design dominated snowboarding, he introduced a board with a flat base and no fins. Immediately, it won the North American championships and the US Open downhill, and remains the board design of choice today. In the mountain bike industry, Klassen isolated bike pedal motion from suspension motion to make downhill suspension systems efficient for uphill climbing. His Virtual Pivot Point technology (VPP) is regarded as one of the most significant mountain bike patents in history. The VPP technology has won more races than any other suspension system on the market.
Klassen holds more than 30 patents for inventions and innovations in areas as diverse as rotary engines, pumps and human performance. At Genesis Advanced Technology, he led a team of engineers and inventors who developed applications and technologies for the military, clean energy and the oil and gas industry as well as in the areas of surgical robots, human performance and health. He helped design and deploy the MRInvisible Aneurysm Clip, which can eliminate the need for more invasive procedures such as contrast angiography.