Abstract of the Offer
Orbit Rise Ltd (OrbitRise) is a UK-based consultancy company specialising in extreme environment robotics for space and energy sectors. Its Founding Director, Dr Rai, co-developed the next-generation omnidirectional walking manipulator called the End-Over-End Walking robot – the E-Walker. This innovative fully dexetrous robot can be used for in-space (dis)assembly missions, maintenance and decommissioning complex infrastructures in space and on Earth. The University of Lincoln, UK, funded the project. Jointly with the University of Lincoln, OrbitRise is keen to advance the technology for commercial exploitation jointly with end-users and investors.
Description
Robot manipulation tasks across various industries rely heavily on fixed-to-base robotic manipulators. However, they are less versatile, as their reachability limits their workspace. E-Walker is a dexterous robotic manipulator designed to overcome the workspace limitations of fixed-base manipulators. It is a modular, omnidirectional manipulator with seven Degrees-of-Freedom, offering superior performance due to dexterity, agility, and manoeuvrability.
It walks and climbs on varied structures without predefined paths, navigates confined spaces, adapts to multiple surfaces, and enables multi-robot task sharing for in-space and terrestrial (dis)assembly, maintenance and decommissioning operations.
The market spans various in-opace services and terrestrial operations. The E-Walker robot can be used for a range of in-orbit inspection, (dis)assembly, inspection, maintenance and manufacturing missions. On Earth, it is now being developed for decommissioning the JET fusion tokamak by UKAEA. Other alternate applications include decommissioning of nuclear fission reactors, remote maintenance of solar farms and wind turbines to list a few.
Advantages and Innovations
E-Walker is an innovative space manipulator without a fixed base. Its inbuilt redundancy enables mobility around its base in any direction, moving like a Queen in 3D space. It has dual grasping ends for rigid contact. It offers superior performance, combining dexterous manipulation and walking capability for efficient assembly, inspection, and decommissioning.
E-Walker combines the key advantages of state-of-the-art manipulators like Canadarm2, ERA, MOSAR, and Climbot while eliminating their motion and rotation limits. E-Walker offers the best of Canadarm2, ERA, MOSAR, and Climbot while eliminating their design drawbacks. Its in-line elbow joint enables efficient end-over-end walking without joint offset and with full rotational freedom, ensuring high dexterity, straight-line mobility, and reliability — offering a unique, commercially viable manipulation solution for multiple sectors.