Magic Gloves

In another form of IAD a sensory glove measures the force the wearer imposes on any part of the material handling system or the object being maneuvered. This instrumented glove is always worn by the operator and therefore remains with the operator. The instrumented glove generates a set of signals as a function of the contact force between the glove and the object being manipulated or the material handling device itself. A set of signals representing the contact force is transmitted in the form of RF signals to a device controller so that a command signal is generated. The command signal is sent to the device actuator to provide the required assistance to maneuver lift the load as a function of the force imposed by the operator, so that the operator provides only a small portion of the total force needed to maneuver the device and the object being manipulated by the device. For a person observing the operator and the IAD, this interaction seems rather magical since the device responds to the operator’s touch regardless of whether the operator is pushing onto the IAD or onto the object being lifted by the device.