{"id":843,"date":"2015-11-10T16:25:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T16:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=843"},"modified":"2018-02-08T13:33:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:33:45","slug":"crawling-on-the-same-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/crawling-on-the-same-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Crawling on the same track"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The first time Jamie Beard, \u201997 mechanical engineering,\u00a0\u201999 M.S., \u201903 Ph.D, saw Steve Canfield, he was a\u00a0Tennessee Tech University undergraduate presenting at\u00a0an engineering awards dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of a couple folks invited to give a\u00a0presentation on a research project I completed for\u00a0a special topics class,\u201d Beard said. \u201cSteve called me\u00a0afterwards to invite me to present my project during one\u00a0of his classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1997, Canfield completed his graduate studies and\u00a0took a faculty position in Tech\u2019s College of Engineering.\u00a0That same year, Beard began looking for an advisor for\u00a0his master\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

Finding one didn\u2019t take long. Mechanical engineering\u00a0department chairman Ed Griggs called both men to his\u00a0office due to their similar interest in machine design.\u00a0At that meeting, Beard found his advisor. The pair\u00a0studied mobile robotics for six years.<\/p>\n

In 2007, they started a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great academic relationship when I was a\u00a0student at Tech,\u201d said Beard. \u201cSo I\u2019m not surprised that\u00a0we\u2019ve managed this company well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucked away just a few minutes northeast of\u00a0Tech\u2019s campus is three floors of office space for that\u00a0collaboration, Robotic Technologies of Tennessee.\u00a0Computer-aided design workstations and a 3-D printer\u00a0are upstairs.<\/p>\n

The bottom floor is a converted garage space that\u00a0serves as a fabrication workshop filled with measurement\u00a0and manufacturing tools. Most of the machine magic\u00a0takes place there. Robots in various states of completion\u00a0cover the space.<\/p>\n

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Left to right Canfield, Bryant and Beard are redesigning crawling robots to answer military and industrial needs. Their company grew out of research collaboration in Tech\u2019s mechanical engineering program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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RTT designs and builds \u201ctrack crawlers,\u201d robotic\u00a0machines with magnetic tracks that look like conveyor\u00a0belts. They are designed to move across metal surfaces at\u00a0any angle. With this, operators can drive manufacturing\u00a0tools and inspection equipment to locations that\u00a0previously required a greater degree of effort to reach.<\/p>\n

Before, a worker may have had to climb up the side\u00a0of a hundred-foot tank for measurement or repair. Now,\u00a0Beard and Canfield\u2019s magnetic robots can handle that\u00a0task, decreasing the possibility of injury on the job.<\/p>\n

With these crawlers, the company focuses on three\u00a0main services: commercializing existing manufacturing\u00a0tools like welding; conducting and supporting inspection\u00a0services; and developing specialized crawlers for services;\u00a0and developing specialized crawlers for government and\u00a0industry clients.<\/p>\n

One of RTT\u2019s major inspection clients is the\u00a0Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA hired Canfield to\u00a0develop an automated method of inspecting power lines\u00a0before RTT started.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first job resulted in a robot that was about 10 feet\u00a0long and weighed half a ton,\u201d Canfield said. \u201cWith our\u00a0past experience combined, Jamie and I felt the proper\u00a0direction was to make a small, 10-pound robot that could\u00a0climb power lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

TVA officials were so impressed after a demonstration\u00a0that they asked if the Tech student and professor could\u00a0build a similar crawler to enter the boilers of power plants.<\/p>\n

From then on, a relationship was born.<\/p>\n

Beard and Canfield receive assistance from Steve\u00a0Glovsky, a commercialization specialist who lives\u00a0in Franklin, Tennessee. He has experience guiding\u00a0companies that spin out from university initiatives.<\/p>\n

Beard attributes the duo\u2019s success over the years to\u00a0their tenacity in the face of the adversity that comes\u00a0from designing solutions to new types of engineering\u00a0problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t give up easily,\u201d said Beard. \u201cI think that\u2019s\u00a0how we were able to form a group and stay together all\u00a0these years. We all see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and\u00a0don\u2019t take no for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though RTT still inspects TVA properties, many\u00a0of the company\u2019s robotic designs end up welding in\u00a0shipyards across the East Coast. Companies like General\u00a0Dynamics NASSCO, Bath Iron Works and Huntington\u00a0Ingalls Industries have purchased welding crawlers.<\/p>\n

As the company grows, Canfield is a little more\u00a0hands-off. He remains involved with proposals, technical\u00a0developments and business direction, but the majority of\u00a0work for clients is done by Beard and his team.<\/p>\n

With such an important relationship already in place,\u00a0it\u2019s no coincidence that some members of this team\u00a0are Tech graduates. Andrew Bryant, \u201909 mechanical\u00a0engineering, is the most recent hire at the company. He\u00a0worked with Canfield as an undergraduate and joined the\u00a0company when it formed his junior year.<\/p>\n

Like others in the group, Bryant has a range of\u00a0responsibilities. He spends time programming with\u00a0computer-aided design, machining and fabricating metal\u00a0parts and taking the crawlers into the field for inspections.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of this stuff is new territory,\u201d he said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t\u00a0been done yet, and it\u2019s really rewarding to have people\u00a0come up to you at trade shows and say, \u2018Wow, I didn\u2019t\u00a0know you can do stuff like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant is working on his master\u2019s thesis, which focuses\u00a0on optimizing mobile robotic tracks over various surfaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with people I studied under, I learned that\u00a0my professors are people too,\u201d said Bryant. \u201cWhen you\u00a0come to college, there\u2019s this notion that professors know\u00a0everything. I learned that what they know best is how to\u00a0think about a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaborating outside of the classroom has allowed\u00a0me to learn with my professors. That\u2019s something few students get to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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                              The first time Jamie Beard, \u201997 mechanical engineering,\u00a0\u201999 M.S., \u201903 Ph.D, saw Steve Canfield, he was a\u00a0Tennessee Tech University undergraduate presenting at\u00a0an engineering awards dinner. \u201cI was one of a couple folks invited to give a\u00a0presentation on a research project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fall15"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}