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6th October 2003

'Power Assist' technology is set to stimulate new generations of tools and appliances

• brings manual feel & interactivity to motorised products such as tools & kitchen appliances

Click here to see video footage.

A novel new technology from Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL) allows power assistance to be applied in highly sensitive ways to everyday consumer and trade equipment from work tools to kitchen appliances. The concept has the potential to stimulate new generations of products with the capability and throughput provided by motor power, but the feel and interactivity of manual control. Simple to apply, it could provide a rich new seam of differentiators for companies looking for imaginative ways to re-package everyday items based on mature technologies.

Dubbed Power Assist, the technology provides a way of interacting with powered products that replaces crude "on/off" functionality with natural and responsive control that is directly related to a user's hand movement.

"Motorised power can be a very blunt instrument," says Craig Webster, Head of Power Products at CCL. "This new concept creates an opportunity to produce a range of high-value, interactive products, at relatively low cost. This is particularly important in markets like power tools, where many products are mature and gravitating towards commodity pricing."

Power Assist is a low-cost control and feedback technique for applying the power of an electric motor based on a hand-wheel user interface. CCL is demonstrating the concept with a power drill, where the normal trigger control is replaced by the kind of hand-wheel used on a manual drill. Motor power is applied according to the wheel's speed of rotation, and a novel torque feedback technique also applies varying degrees of reverse pressure to the wheel, to give the user the sensation of the load and the force being applied.

In this example, CCL's control scheme gives the tool a much more natural feel, directly translating a user's turning hand movement into powered drilling - slowing or stopping in synchronisation with the user's hand, and reversing drilling direction if the user changes rotation direction.

The highly precise control this affords can be applied to appliances in ways that appeal to distinct new categories of users. In the case of a power tool, for example, this might range from the less confident user who perceives motorised equipment as difficult to handle or dangerous, through the novice user who lacks skill rather than confidence, to the skilled craftsman who might otherwise choose a hand tool for fine control over critical tasks.

Power Assist can be added to most kinds of motor-powered appliances using just a handful of low cost components, which in essence are a slightly more sophisticated version of the motor control circuitry that is currently used.

It is very easy to apply to existing product formats, as CCL is demonstrating by its conversion of a typical consumer hand drill, and implementing just a simple forward/reverse control scheme makes the add-on cost of applying Power Assist very small - the torque feedback mechanism used in CCL's demonstration model would not be required in many applications.

The applications potential of CCL's Power Assist technology is wide ranging. It includes power tools for the garden, workshop and trades - as well as specialist professions such as surgery - and kitchen appliances such as food mixers. With the range of implementations that are possible using the technology: from simple movement-linked control, to control with torque sensing, moderated by various tunings of the control loop and feedback to optimise the feel of the tool for different levels of user, Power Assist provides OEMs with a platform to re-engineer their ranges and create new and unique products.

In most of the target application areas that CCL foresees for this technology, the basic technologies are very mature and patents have expired, and established brand-name manufacturers have few opportunities to differentiate themselves from the competition. In recent years this has become increasingly important, as companies in emerging economies have entered global markets. This background serves to make CCL's Power Assist technology a strategic weapon in adding value that differentiates products, and sustains a company's intellectual lead in a market sector.

"The concept has been tested, and user reaction has been very encouraging," adds Craig Webster. "A common element of the feedback is that tasks become more fun." A short video clip illustrating the Power Assist concept may be viewed below:

• Power Assist video (small) - 2.2 mb
• Power Assist video (large) - 10.9 mb

If you experience any problems viewing this Quicktime movie, either make changes to your personal Quicktime settings or download the latest Quicktime player on the link below.

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