OmniBelt: Festos' look on conveyor belts

Festo, the company whos' creation I have already wrote about, has released a new world-changing concept: omni-directional conveyor belt. How does that work? Read-on and find out!

www.festo.com

We all know what regular conveyor belt looks like: longs strip of material that rotates in an infinite loop, powered by one or two motors on each side. The technology stayed the same for years.

Bo-ring.

Well, the stale market of conveyors is due to change, all thanks to the new technology developed by Festo. Named WaveHandling (although some say that the actual name will be OmniBelt, which is what I am going to call it), it is a series of pneumatic modules that expand or retract in height, altering the service of the belt, which in turn pushes the object in the desirable direction.

You get the idea.

The surface itself, however, the remains still, which brings up the question: what about large flat object that cannot simply be rolled over? Festo does not have an answer for us just yet, however, the idea is incredible as it is and will most likely to get a lot of attention from the investors.

Modular design allows for creation of complex paths

Each module is an independent device that behaves in a collaboration with other modules around it, allowing to create complex wave patterns that will push objects wherever they needs to go. The motion patterns of the 2.0 conveyor belt reminded me of waves, and no wonder why: The concept was based on sea-wave movement. Furthermore, because the belt allows the use of object-identifying cameras and multiple modules at once, OmniBelt can not only move things around, but sort and send them down different paths!

It is like having two machines in one! (...that's exactly what the point
of this is)

Although this is no doubt a great device that might spark a revolution in the field of transportaion, as of now it seems to be just a proof-of-concept. The modular belt does not address the issure of rectangular, fragile, or other objects that cannot be rolled, and has other minor flaws. OmniBelt is an amazing new invention, but the future of it remains unknown.

[Festo via TechnoBlograph]