Author Archives: george

Driverless Vehicles

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Elevators were among the first driverless vehicles


None of us wants to be the first driverless vehicle casualty. Not a problem, the current generation was not born soon enough. Our grandparents generation witnessed the first driverless vehicle, an elevator. Yes, an elevator is a vehicle that carries people and rides on a vertical set of tracks. the first elevators were run by operators. As you might expect it was a strike of elevator operators in the 1930’s, that paralyzed high rise cities like Chicago and New York, that ushered in the first driverless elevators. Digital logic implemented with relays replaced the manual controls used by an elevator operator. Encapsulating the moving driverless car in a closed box solved the safety issue.

Driverless trains pass ina blurr


A driverless vehicle is not limited to traveling only in a vertical direction. When you install the tracks on the ground the vehicle travels in a horizontal path. The Atlanta airport has a driverless vehicle system that is much like an elevator on its side. The safety enclosure is right out of the elevator design text book. The track is fully enclosed and doors remain shut until a vehicle is at the stop.

Lidar give driverless vehicle vision


None of us can picture encapsulating our road with access doors so that we could use driverless vehicles. Even if we could, I can’t imaging people wanting to wait in line at rush hour for their turn in the enclosure.Google claims that their 64 laser LIDAR system mounted on the top of their test vehicle is the proper solution. Certainly the included computing horsepower to process a million byte of data per second that it generates makes it expensive enough. Most purchasers of driverless vehicles must take cost into account. This probably is why most warehouse driverless vehicle only have a one laser LIDAR. As you might project the lower cost approach is attractive to many more users. The current flurry of adoption of warehouse driverless vehicle is just one more confirmation. Amazon currently has 45000 driverless vehicles in their warehouses.

Amazon uses driverless warehouse vehicles


As we evolve our driverless vehicles, we also are inventing the safety system that must be included. We can only hope to minimize the number of people that are hurt.

Bait and Switch

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Having done some fishing as a child, neither gummi worms or a real worm installed on a hook improperly would result in catching any fish. If you are going to catch anything using bait, it has to be a believable simulation of the real thing. Technique is important as well Yes, a worm is the real thing but if the fish can nibble on it without swallowing the hook, you are just feeding the fish, Many times the only thing you catch is a cold. Also tried ice fishing. Successfully caught some ice.

Internet advertisers are modern day fishermen. The item you post must be a believable simulation of what is the search object. If you post an ad for an engineering manager position in Kingston Georgia, the people who live there will know that the town lacks a company that has a position with that title. Re-posting the same deception after it is taken down, still will not make the commute from Kingston Georgia to Kingston Washington where the actual job is possible for anyone who does not have a Space X rocket for the commute. The real looser is the headhunter site that gets linked to the spam filter list, because they have chosen to not curate their content.

Versatility

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swiss army knife

Versatility
adverb
Capable of or adapted for turning easily from one to another of various tasks, fields of endeavor, etc.

Ah yes, memories of my Boy Scout days. The Swiss army knife. The pinnacle of versalite pocket tools. Status symbol of senior scouts. Yes, the standard issue Boy Scout knife had some versatile implements. but not like the Swiss army knife. Heck, some of them included a fork and spoon. I did not know at the time that I was being shown how to value assets. Tools become assets when you have what you need at the right time. Combining options into a versatile package increases the likelihood of that package becoming an asset

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abandoned phone booths

Phone booths used to be a valued asset of the phone company. Heck, they were a machine for collecting lots of quarters. However the season changes. Now that we have all gotten used to the versatility of our cell phones, a single purpose piece of equipment like a phone booth is left out in the weather to rot. OK, one got repurposed as a time machine and some others as superhero change rooms. Since it wasn’t our money that was invested, we just brush them off in the buggy whip category. Yes, there used to be buggy whip manufacturers

Pack Mule


Closer to home, a customer of my current major client chose our product because it is versatile. They did not have to choose between buying a personnel carrier or a tow vehicle. As a matter of fact they bought the bolt on tow hitches at the beginning. In this time of chaos it is comforting to know that the money invested in a vehicle can serve either need. Even if we do not know our needs three years out.

Self Imposed Limitations

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We all enthusiastically adopted hair dryers when they were introduced. The early version were 1200 and 1500 watt. The manufacturers of the time self imposed this maximum power. They collectively believed that a 110VAC outlet in a typical North American home could only deliver this amount of power. The market has progressed past this self imposed limitation. I was looking at the 1875 watt dryer that my wife stores on the bathroom counter. I reflected that it seems ages ago that we dried our hair at the slow rate of a 1200 watt hair dryer. On the other hand, it could be argued that the relentless conversion of fuses to circuit breakers has reduced the inconvenience associated with overloading a plug and blowing a fuse.

Other good examples of self imposed limitation is the 4 minute mile. When Roger Bannister determined how to run a four minute mile, he accomplished the feat against a background of all the other suitably conditioned athletes believing it was impossible. A good example of a self imposed limitation. Today most top runners break the 4 minute barrier in competitions. They are unaware of the historic self imposed limitation. It is easy to identify self imposed limitations after they are exposed.
Discussing self imposed limitations is more useful when the participating parties realize that it is possible to obtain greater benefits by abandoning them. Inventors and start-up companies run into this artificial barrier all the time. Amid my current projects is a new technology battery that is designed to be rapidly charged. The stodgy users have to be taught that they can charge this battery when ever it is near a 110VAC outlet. It is no longer necessary to wait unit the battery is completely discharged to restore some charge (a self imposed limitation) Harder to understand is a reluctance on the part of the engineers who design the charging system to switch gears. They insist on retaining a self imposed limitation. The charger design engineers need to be taught that a short (opportunity) battery charging higher output burst will not overheat the charger. This improvement only occurs by abandoning the self imposed limitation, Yes the charger can deliver a short duration burst of amperage which is greater than the amount it can continuously deliver over a long period. Just like the the hair dryer manufactures, battery charger manufacturers eventually will adopt enhanced opportunity charging performance. It will take a “Roger Bannister” to see beyond the self imposed barrier blocking higher power outputs

Pass the Test

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If your commute to work includes a shortcut across the airport, you might want to consider driving a Lotus. If you are trying to avoid being hit by a 747 landing at 240 miles per hour, you can take comfort in the knowledge that the car you are driving, has already been proven on the runway. Lotus picked a location near Norwich England that had some abandoned World War II runaways. Today these runways are the test track for all Lotus vehicles If you are not driving your Lotus on the runways that it was made for, don’t be surprised if its spends a lot of time in the repair shop. A airport runway test track may not tell the designers of the vehicle whether it would operate reliably on the type of roads that you drive.
Your commute may include switchbacks like you find on the roads that lead into Monaco. They removed the guard rails after Grace Kelly died by going over the edge. The traffic actually drives more cautiously when the danger is clearly visible. The benefit is that you get to see the picture postcard views that are displayed in travel brochures.
If this were my commute, I would drive a German performance vehicle like a BMW or Mercedes. Not because these are yuppie status symbols. The real reason is because they are tested on the Nurburgring test track in the Alps of Bavaria. This is the only automotive test track that simulates the grades and twists that a Monaco commuter has to navigate. Monaco happens to be on the other side of the Alps. It is not surprising that most Alpine car purchasers want their cars to work on the type of roads that they drive.
It turns out that all vehicle purchasers want their vehicles to operate reliably. The difference between opinioneering and engineering is proper testing. ‘I think it is going to work ‘does not cut it in today’s marketplace. I selected any old test and it passed is not good enough either. Engineering is all about “I invented a representative test to simulate how the vehicle is used and my offering passed.”

The Horizontal Movement

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E-commerce Goods Order Packer (2 to 3 Positions Available-Immediate Need!)

Job Summary
The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of the major duties and responsibilities performed by incumbents of this job. Incumbents may be requested to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically outlined in this job description.
Selected Candidates will be called to arrange an initial interview. First interview will be informal & give you an opportunity to tour the Shipping Department & manufacturing facility, ask questions to the Shipping Supervisor & allow us to ask questions pertaining to you & the position available. Our desire is to find sufficiently tall associates. If an offer is made after the first interview, a second interview to discuss Pay, Benefits, Bonuses, Training, etc. will be arranged. A Criminal Background Check & Drug Screening will be required to be considered for this position. A Basic Mathematics & Arithmetic Skill Test and/or Driving Record Check may also be required. Two positions are available for immediate fill & we ask for Candidates to consider this before applying. We would want you to start within one week & not to exceed two weeks following an offer being made & all Background, Drug Screening & other testing completed satisfactory.
JOB TITLE
E-commerce Goods Order Packer
DEPARTMENT & HOURS/WEEK
Shipping / 40hrs+
Primary Function (Overall Purpose of your Position)
Count, consolidate & package incoming finished goods from the various productions centers into outgoing customer orders and/or into inventory going to the warehouse for future customer orders.
Educational Qualifications
High School Diploma or equivalent GED
Job Qualifications
Must be able to physically lift up to 55lbs. unassisted.
Must be able to stand & walk for extended periods of time.
Must be able to perform basic mathematic calculations.
Must have basic knowledge of computer navigation.
Must be able to gather and place items on top shel of racking
PPE Qualifications
Steel Toed Shoes (required on day one of employment)
Safety Glasses
List of Specific Functions (Must be performed in order to fulfill the purpose of your position described above)
Must be able to follow safety guidelines & policies, knowing physical limitations & the hazards of the environment.
Must be able to walk on floors designed for normal 100 lb per square foot loading
Must be able to read & follow instructions given by Order Pick Lists.
Must be able to take direction from Shipping Team Leader & Traffic Control Clerk.
Must be able to work as a team member with co-workers & assist as needed.
Must be able to accurately count parts for outgoing shipments & internal inventory.
Must be able to pack material safely & securely to assure safe shipment to our customers.
Must be able to work occasional, unscheduled overtime in order to complete daily shipping requirements.
Must be able to show up for work daily, on time, with a good attitude.
Must be able to understand, accept & follow quality & other company policies.
Must be able to maintain department housekeeping standards & keep work area clean.
Must be able to safely load customer orders onto outgoing carriers or company trucks & unload incoming material from vendors.
Accept & complete all other duties as assigned.

You have seen the ads. We are looking for motivated tall e commerce pick and pack workers willing to work for minimum wage. It is a good thing that the NBA retires basketball players with many working years left. Or out of science fiction fantasy, this is a genetic engineering conspiracy theory, We are trying to breed 20 ft tall skinny workers that are dumb enough to work for minimum wage. What is really occurring is that a shift in the marketplace toward e-commerce is obsoleting a warehouse designed to store and ship full skids of material. It is less efficient to bring down a skid to collect one part for shipment. This is true even if you already own a fancy lift that can lift. pivot, and stuff
The real estate in a warehouse that is at worker height is like ocean front property. It is in high demand. This is why companies like Amazon build warehouses with lower ceiling height. They find that it is more productive to put their facility dollars into larger footprints and less of their dollars into rebar reinforced concrete floors that high lift fork trucks require. The legacy owners of tall warehouses find that the top shelves of their warehouses are a less efficient match to e-commerce. IKEA is going through that pain now. They keep hoping that tall workers or “My Favorite Martians” will solve the issue of picking eaches from the top shelves.
Competitors to IKEA like HON have adopted the goods to man (Kiva/ Amazon) approach. Portable shelving racks move goods around the facility in Japanese KANBAN fashion. This approach is spreading and is guiding the new product production systems for horizontal material handling equipment builders like Wesley International {Pack Mule)

Disconnect

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There is a disconnect between the virtual and real world[/caption]
As an technology leader I am attracted to the bright colors in the emerging virtual world. The hum drum real world seems so stodgy dull and grey. Especially in the winter. It is easy to get sucked into the easy to understand simplifications needed to make virtual reality possible. However bright and colorful the food looks in the virtual world it has no smell or taste and my stomach still growls with hunger pangs.
Computerized finite element stress analysis is a really powerful engineering tool. It is very helpful to know the effects of changes in part shape without going to the time and expense of building and testing actual components. In today’s rapid paced business environment the time saving that is possible is necessary to bring products to market before they are obsolete. I am currently using the technique to evolve a vehicle rear suspension into a version that will carry twice as much load
There is a difference between opinioneering and engineering. I think it is going to work is more risky than I performed a representative test and it passed. However much that I like virtual testing like finite element, the purchasers of my vehicles want them to work in more than the virtual world. Fortunately my latest test vehicle did not require the camouflage paint used for automotive test vehicles. In the automotive world, creative paint jobs hide the new model styling from the press. In most cases even a rigorous test program is not enough. I remember an automotive rear suspension frame like I am currently designing that did not show its weakness until some actual vehicles were out on the road. A panic stop while traveling in reverse buckled the rear axle under the vehicle. Not funny when this occurs after the frame was production tooled.
Agile product development addresses some of this issue. In agile fashion, we accelerated placing our new generation of rear suspension arm in actual customer use much earlier in the launch process. This adds a reality check to the computer assisted design and testing.

Dueling Digital Streams

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Even though the telephone was the first device that was widely used to employ digital (pulse width modulation) electronics, most of us cut our digital teeth on the personal computer. The digital nature of the phone system was invisible to us until the advent of cellular smart phones. The digital portion of the telephone (and co resident internet) system started at the telephone company office. Digital made sense to the electrical engineers. It was a lot easier to create a circuit that was either on or off. We all grew up with the light switch. Our lack of exposure to digital devices was a portion of the trepidation that we experienced every time we added a new digital device or card to the data streams within our computers. Usually this trepidation was well founded in that frequent system crashes occurred as we tried to activate yet one more device. Most of our computers were regularly sent to the computer repair shop to sort out the dueling digital streams.
It is not surprising that we think personal computer when the discussion topic of digital is brought up. Yes, the personal computer is still digital. What has crept up on us is that virtually every electrical device that we use is now digital. Even the humble electric light
that was the impedes for deploying our electric grids has evolved into a digitally driven LED (Light Emitting Diode) array. Most people are unaware that digital circuits pulse the LED’s to achieve the brightness without burning them out. The pulse circuits are powered by digital converters that create the proper voltage. Each digital step creates its own digital stream.
Most of the digital devices that we buy have been tested. Like the medications that we employ, this testing is done in isolation. We all hope that we will only need one medication at a time because next to no testing has been done to determine whether medications will work in combination. Vehicles have many electric devices. Each device runs on its own set of digital streams. All of these devises share a common wiring system which opens the door for dueling digital streams. Unlike the medical community, most vehicles devices are tested to confirm that they can work properly together. This does not totally prevent unauthorized engineering changes from creating dueling digital streams. I am currently recovering from an event where the digital stream from the headlights shut down the vehicle control.

Hands Free

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[/caption]
Most of us have learned how to ride a bicycle. It is pretty safe to say that riding hands free is unlikely initially. This is an unrealistic expectation. The balance and poise that it takes to ride hands free is developed with practice and experience. The hands free rider in the lead picture has many miles of experience under her belt. She is riding hands free without being on a smooth paved road.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA


We would all like the automation that we install to operate like “hand free” bicycle riding. Like “hands free” bike riding, it is unrealistic to expect this level of results the day the equipment is turned on. Insanity also applies. Doing everything exactly the same and expecting the results to improve is the easiest way to prove that you are insane. Achieving “hands free” automation requires some degree of active improvement from the initial installation. I am currently commissioning a robot that delivers molten aluminum. The last time I achieved “hand free” simplicity on a molten metal transport robot, I had invested a couple of years of planning and implementing small improvements. It was necessary to add all of the intelligence of a human operator to the program such that the robot knows what to do for the majority of non standard events. Silly little changes such as improving the synchronization signals make all the difference.