KUKA industrial robot carving a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern at the New Detroit Science Center. Actual time took a little over 2 minutes. I could have made a system utilizing a rotary cutter to make a more elaborate face, but I could not deny a the creation of a knife/saw wielding robot. After each part is cut a it is first speared, then a subroutine cleans the knife by passing it through a “fork” allowing the scrap to fall into a waste can. Since I was going to be carving a number of pumpkins in various sizes, I had to fabricate a fixture system that would be flexible enough to to accommodate the different dimensions and present it to the robot in a consistent manner. This was accomplished by making the table adjustable in height and incorporating a removable gauge into it that would center the face of the pumpkin a consistent distance from the edge of the table. Unfortunately, the robot does not clean out the pumpkin.

Renewable Energy -Energy Conservation