Haddington Dynamics is an advanced research and development company
applying the most advanced reconfigurable supercomputing technology to focus on low-cost, ultra precision motion control for robotics. To cut costs while increasing functionality, modern manufacturing is becoming increasingly automated. This presents problems of keeping the cost of the automated equipment down while improving on its precision.
Our first product, Dexter, is an open-source 5-axis robot arm with 50μm repeatability that is fully trainable and human-safe. Dexter can be programmed in high-level languages for applications including 3D Printing, PCBA, material handling, and more.
Dexter implements the HiQ™ FPGA supercomputing framework on a cellphone-size controller operating at 276GMAC (equivalent to 138GFLOPS). The HiQ™ core processes 2M measurements per second, enabling 50nanometer resolution, 50μm repeatability, and real-time force feedback (Trutouch™). The processing speed and resolution, combined with Hadington’s Digital Compliance™ algorithms, make the robot intrinsically human-safe and capable of manual training.
Two key advantages of the HiQ™ technology over existing solutions are reconfigurability and ease of use. Existing robotic motion control schemes are custom-created for a particular application and require specialists to implement. The HiQ™ system is able to reprogram itself on the fly in response to changing conditions and any task operator can implement system setup and training—advanced programming options are available through a high-level API and allow any skilled Software Engineer to create a manufacturing or assembly system.
The Dexter platform is suitable for applications including 3D Printing, PCBA, subtractive manufacturing, material handling, and metrology. Addition of vision sensors allows for 3D Scanning, human interactivity, and automated inspection and QC. The platform has built-in machine to machine communication, making it ideal for collaborative tasks.