‘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:
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