PTC Product Lifecycle Stories eMagazine - Summer 2014

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE STORIESINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS, MANUFACTURING, AND SERVICE
WHY WOMEN
STILL DON’T WANT
MANUFACTURING JOBS
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
How IoT Ready is Your Company?
Home of the Best Problem Solvers: Singapore
Ukraine Conflict Brings Supply Chain Woes
The Next Industrial Robot Could be a Kangaroo
Summer 2014

Summer 2014 – Table of Contents
Feature Article
Despite solid growth across the nation, the manufacturing industry not only faces a
skills gap, but also a serious gender gap. Although women outperform men in
higher education, they are still underrepresented in all manufacturing sectors.
WHY WOMEN STILL DON’T WANT MANUFACTURING JOBS
08
How IoT Ready is Your Company?
The number of smart “things” is growing, and research predicts that the Internet
of Things will lead to a potential economic impact of $2.3 trillion for the global
manufacturing industry. How capable is your company of capturing a piece of
this trillion-dollar pie?
Home of the Best Problem Solvers: Singapore
Jobs today are placing an emphasis on tasks that require complex problem-solving
skills, but are schools teaching students the skills necessary to keep pace with
these new demands?
12
Ukraine Conflict Brings Supply Chain Woes
Crises, natural or manmade, often put a strain on supply chains, and the
current turmoil in Ukraine is a reminder that globalization creates risks as
well as opportunities.
16
The Micro: A 3D Printer Designed for Everyone
3D printing has clearly taken off in many industries, and now a Kickstarter
campaign has proven that there’s also demand for a consumer printer.
24
3 Amazing Underwater Robots
It’s said that we know more about outer space than about the vast oceans on this
planet. But new types of robots—underwater autonomous vehicles—are helping to
open the ocean to researchers in new ways.
26
3D-Printed Homes Gain Momentum
Imagine a contractor building a home, but instead of hauling in lumber, he sets
up a giant 3D printer on the lot and a few days later a house with a foundation
and walls is ready to finish. 3D printing on a commercial scale may be some time
away, but the process is gaining momentum.
30
The Next Industrial Robot Could be a Kangaroo
If it looks like a kangaroo and hops like a kangaroo, it could be a sophisticated
German robot powered by electric drives and pneumatic pumps.
20
Cover photo credit: Bernard Hoffman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Summer 2014 – Letter from the Editor
Over the past half a decade, the U.S. manufacturing industry has added 600,000 jobs, and growth continues
with exciting advances in fields like 3D printing, robotics, materials engineering, nanotechnology, and the IoT.
Manufacturing workers earn on average 17 percent more than the rest of us, and career opportunities are diverse.
And yet, women still aren’t interested.
Today, only 25 percent of manufacturing workers are female. Compare this to the height of WWII, when the
female labor force grew by more than 50 percent and working women abandoned their traditional jobs in
trade, personal service, and catering to enter war production plants and factories by the droves.
So what’s different about today’s manufacturing environment, or with women themselves? Culture, lack of
role models, and persistent stereotypes may all play their part.
In our cover story, staff writer Michelle Reis explores the pervasive under-representation of women in manu-
facturing and what we can do to finally turn the tables.
Also in this issue, we explore the latest in robotics—from underwater discovery and adventure to a
three-foot-tall gesture-controlled bionic kangaroo that could change factory assembly lines everywhere.
Freelance writer Maria Regan investigates why children from Singapore are outperforming the rest of the
world when it comes to problem solving, and innovation and environment reporter Gary Wollenhaupt contem-
plates how 3D-printed homes could be part of a more sustainable future.
Sincerely,
Nancy Pardo
Editor in Chief
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE STORIES
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: NANCY PARDO

Driven by a more competitive labor market, lower
energy costs, and the re-shoring movement, Amer-
ican manufacturing has been able to grow by about
600,000 jobs in the last four years, reversing a
decades-long negative trend. Manufacturing
registered a 55.4 percent PMI for May 2014, mark-
ing an expansion for the 12th
consecutive month.
Yet although there is solid growth across the
nation, many manufacturers are still struggling to
meet labor needs, as evidenced by The U.S.
Department of Labor, which shows that there were
241,000 open manufacturing jobs in March, 2014.
President Obama has attempted to use federal
dollars to help strengthen technical colleges and
recruit more people to pursue jobs in manufac-
turing, but despite these efforts a resource that
could help address these problems is being
highly underutilized.
“Amidst all the promising signs in U.S. manufac-
turing, one disparity continues to make headlines,”
reads a memo from the United States Congress.
“The recent job gains in manufacturing have been
largely among men.”
Women, despite outperforming men in higher
education credentials and making up about 47
percent of the U.S. workforce, only account for
about 25 percent of manufacturing workers,
according to data from women’s advocacy group
Catalyst. And while the number of men employed in
manufacturing between 2010 and 2013 grew by 7
percent, the number of women fell by 0.3 percent.
According to Allison Grealis, the director of Women
in Manufacturing (WiM), a 400-member group that
aims to attract and retain women in the industrial
sector, this under-representation is mostly caused
by outdated perceptions.
Despite advances in gender equality in recent
decades, there is a long-standing view of manufac-
turing as having a male-centered culture that
implicitly excludes women from attaining core
managerial roles. In fact, a study from Deloitte and
the Manufacturing Institute cites this belief as a key
driver of women not entering the industry.
Another factor that is leading to the gender gap is
a lack of understanding around modern manufac-
turing. “Too often they think of it as their father’s
manufacturing; still un-modern, dirty, dark, dingy,
and not a place for women,” Grealis says. “That it
requires a whole bunch of girth and heavy lifting,
and that it’s not a very pleasant place to work.”
In reality, modern manufacturing is an incredibly
different sector than the stereotypes suggest.
Why Women Still Don’t Want
BY MICHELLE REIS

Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

Companies are more high-tech, utilizing equipment
that is computer controlled and automated. And
modern manufacturers need to work more with
their mind, and not worry about having brute force.
Excellent science, technology, engineering, mathe-
matics (STEM), and problem solving skills are now
necessities in this industry.
“It’s less about brute force and getting your hands
dirty and more about use of advanced technology
and design,” says Jennifer Bass, who bought Essve
Tech, a manufacturer of corrugated steel pipes in
Alpharetta, GA, in 2004. “This has really leveled the
playing field.”
And the Manufacturing Institute study—which
surveyed 600 women with manufacturing jobs—al-
so found that women working in today’s modern
manufacturing environment are extremely satis-
fied with their job. About 75 percent of respondents
stated their manufacturing career is interesting
and rewarding.
“The main reason we hear from women why they
love manufacturing is that it’s exciting,” Grealis says.
“There’s a lot of on-the-job problem solving, you get
to work with a lot of great teams, and you get to work
in a lot of new technologies, like 3D printing and all
the automation and robotics. It’s never a dull day.”
Focusing on the positive gains a manufacturing
career can bring is only one step toward recruiting
more women into the sector. Probably the first and
most important action is to place more women in
leadership roles within the manufacturing world.
“You know, it’s difficult to envision yourself in an
industry when you don’t see many like you in there,”
Grealis explains. “As you open The New York Times
or The Wall Street Journal, you’re hearing about the
high performing manufacturing companies, but too
often you’re not hearing from the key women who
are involved with these companies.”
Pamela Kan, president of the Bishop-Wisecarver
Group, also believes it’s important to showcase
women in leadership roles, especially when encour-
aging younger girls to enter manufacturing. “We
need to give girls aspirations—something they can
dream about,” she says. “We need to make ourselves
more visible and accessible to the next generation.”
This is where initiatives like WiM’s Hear Her Story
can make a difference. The blog showcases the
daily lives of women in manufacturing—what it
“It’s less
about brute force
and getting your hands
dirty and more about use
of advanced technology
and design”

looks like for them at work, who they are, and how they
got into manufacturing. Testimonials, like welder
instructor Sue Silverstein’s, gives women today a real
glimpse into how women experience manufacturing:
“The environment in manufacturing today is very
different from when I started out,” Silverstein says
in an April, 2014 post. “It’s much better for young
women. My male students don’t bat an eye about
having a female instructor or female classmates.”
Mentorship and sponsorship programs are also
incredibly important in helping bridge the gender
gap, and also an effective tactic to support wom-
en’s advancement into leadership roles. Recent
research shows that individuals who have the
active support of sponsors within their organiza-
tion are more likely to advance in their careers and
see an increase in stretch assignments, promo-
tions, and pay raises.
According to Million Women Mentors, high quality
mentoring programs that connect young women
with female professionals can increase the number
of women who pursue and succeed in STEM
careers. In fact, having these successful female role
models could be the key to countering the negative
stereotypes associated with industries like manu-
facturing—young girls who see successful women
in leadership positions may be inspired to take a
similar career path.
“The skills shortage facing U.S. manufacturers is
apparent, and the under-representation of women
only contributes to the gap,” says Jennifer McNelly,
president of The Manufacturing Institute. “We must
empower each other as ambassadors of the indus-
try so we can inspire the next-generation of young
women to pursue manufacturing careers and encour-
age current female talent within the industry.”

The number of smart “things”—from thermostats to smart
clothes—is growing thanks to demand in the consumer
market. Gartner predicts that by 2020 about 26 billion
smart, connected products will be in service. That’s an
average of 3.3 devices for every person on the planet,
not including the projected 7.3 billion smartphones
and tablets that will be available.
But don’t think that the IoT will only affect
and benefit consumers. “The Internet of
Things will create greater economic
value for all organizations, and for the
global economy,” says Peter Son-
dergaard, senior vice president of
Gartner Research.
According to a report by the
McKinsey Global Institute,
80 to 100 percent of all
manufacturers will be
using IoT applications by
2025, leading to a poten-
tial economic impact of
$2.3 trillion for the
global manufacturing
industry.
Not only are the returns huge for manufacturers,
but the IoT also promises to minimize, and possi-
bly eliminate, massive information gaps around
real-time conditions on factory floors, product use,
and even equipment
maintenance. This
will help manufactur-
ers minimize errors,
be more flexible with
managing late-stage
engineering changes,
and ultimately accel-
erate new product
introductions.
BY AILBHE COUGHLAN
How IoT Readyis
Your Company

Naturally, many companies will want to have a
piece of the trillion-dollar pie, but manufacturers
who want to enter the IoT business must consider
the following:
What does the IoT mean for your company?
Each company will find different opportunities in the
IoT, but all will share the desire to increase revenue,
scale efficiently, and set themselves apart from
competition. Manufacturers starting from scratch
need to transform their business models so that
they are both effective and lucrative.
According to Don Fike, vice president and technical
architect at FedEx Corporate Services, there’s no
reason IT can’t take the lead in leveraging the IoT
for business benefit. “A good place to start is to take
a look at your business processes and how they
might be impacted by some of the sensor technolo-
gies and real-time capabilities,” he says. “Step back
and say, ‘How can this change my business process?’”
Do your products have the potential to be
smartly connected?
If a manufacturer decides they want to bring connec-
tivity to their products, they must evaluate which
part of the product lifecycle they need to concen-
trate on, as products can be smartly connected
either from a design or a service perspective.
Designing connected products also requires the
integration of hardware and software design.
Both processes depend on good design to
succeed, but hardware production calls for
product design and engineering in a linear and
lengthy development cycle, while software
design happens in short, modular loops and
requires support from different kinds of design-
ers and programmers. Manufacturers must
make sure they can handle both capabilities.

Is your IT department ready for the IoT and its
security issues?
Companies must understand the technology they
are working with, as well as the security implica-
tions and privacy laws. “Everyone recognizes that
security is an issue, but not everyone is implement-
ing stuff in their software to really respect it,” says
Russell Fadel, CEO and co-founder of ThingWorx,
the first company to offer a platform designed to
build and run the applications of the connected world.
The IoT, and all of the IP-addressable devices that
come with it, will create new areas susceptible to
attacks designed to either compromise the device or
gain access to the enterprise network (think of the
recent Heartbleed bug). IT teams must be ready to
routinely monitor these devices, protect them from
spam, viruses, and malware, and also be prepared
to address new security issues as they arise.
But evaluating IoT readiness is only one piece of the
puzzle. Once the decision to enter this business has
been made, companies must then make sure their
future strategy for dealing with smart, connected
products is one that is not only aligned with the
overall goals of the organization, but will also bring
the highest returns. According to Bain & Company,
senior executives must consider the following
questions before settling on a strategy:
• Will the highest value be in hardware (advanced
servers, new chips), software and services, or in
data itself?
• What solutions will meet our customer needs and
entice them to invest while also reducing costs,
generating revenue, and lowering risk?
• What capabilities and assets do we need to
develop and deliver these solutions? Who should
we partner with?
• Which standards should we back?
• What are the risks of not acting?

Once companies have solid answers to these questions
and have decided on their strategy, they must then:
• Define and commit to investments. This means
creating budget for the right technologies and
employees with the right skills to identify, create,
and execute IoT applications. The IT infrastructure
may need updating or a company may invest
more heavily in data analytics than in the past. A
good first step should be to see what early adopters
are doing to learn about which applications
create lasting value and which tend to fail.
• Discover what the privacy and security issues are,
and manage them accordingly. Security issues are
a big threat. Businesses and governments must
find a balance that will protect consumers, while
also allowing room for advancement and innovation.
• Evolve your culture and business to adapt to a
smart, connected world. The IoT will require new
skills, employees with more diverse back
grounds, new channels to monetize fresh lines of
business, and, most importantly, new business
models. According to a report from Harbor
Research, smart business models will extend
beyond ideas about new products and services to
the very way in which business is conducted. New
business tools and methods will be needed for
competitive advantage.
The world of the IoT and smart, connected products
is not something to be ignored. It’s becoming clear
that in order to capitalize on its benefits, organiza-
tions will have to ask some key questions, make
critical decisions, and most importantly, be ready
to transform.
Everyone recognizes that
security is an issue, but not
everyone is implementing
stuff in their software to
really respect it”

For decades the demand for workers across the globe who can perform routine tasks like bookkeeping or sorting
has been declining. Machines have eroded the need for such workers, and now humans are being required to
up their game, with a new emphasis on tasks that require complex problem-solving skills. But are schools
teaching students the skills necessary to keep pace with these new demands?
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) believes a lot is riding on our
ability to improve the way we teach problem-solving skills. So much so that it has added problem
solving to its Programme for International Assessment (PISA), a test of math, science, and reading
given every three years to half a million 15-year-old students in 65 countries and economies.
The problem-solving component, which was given to a subset of 85,000 students in 44 countries
and economies, was included for the first time in PISA 2012 and results were released in April 2014.
The questions in this new section are designed to measure an individual’s ability to under-
stand and resolve problem situations. The test challenges involve real-life scenarios like:
• Determining how an unfamiliar MP3 player works, and then finding a way to
simplify its controls without losing any of the existing functionality
• Figuring out how to purchase the least expensive train ticket for
different scenarios using a vending machine (with a malfunction
thrown in as an added challenge)
• Using an interactive map of traffic and travel times to determine
the best place for a group of friends in different suburbs to
meet when none of them can afford more than a 15 minute
travel time
These problems don’t require expert knowledge to solve, so the
results give insight into students’ general reasoning skills, their
ability to regulate problem-solving processes, and their
willingness to do so.
The test is given on computers so that questions can be
interactive. Rather than providing all the information
required to determine an answer upfront, students
SINGAPORE
BY MARIA K. REGAN
HOME OF THE BEST PROBLEM SOLVERS:

have to explore the problem situation to uncover
useful facts, as they would do in real life. For example,
in the questions about buying the least expensive
train ticket for various scenarios, students must first
learn how the digital ticket machine works, then press
the appropriate buttons to determine the price of
each ticket type.
The computers also make it possible to score students
based on process: whether they explored the options
systematically before answering as opposed to
simply guessing.
In the U.S. Country Note, OECD says: “Fifteen-year-olds
who lack these [problem solving] skills today face a
high risk of economic disadvantage as adults. They
will compete for jobs that are becoming rare; and if
they are unable to adapt to new circumstances and
learn in unfamiliar contexts, they may find it particu-
larly difficult to move to better jobs as economic and
technological conditions evolve.”
So which countries have the best problem solvers?
Students from Singapore and Korea were the top
performers (mean scores of 562 and 561 points,
respectively), and were described by the OECD as
“quick learners, highly inquisitive, and able to solve
unstructured problems in unfamiliar contexts.” The
next-best performers were students in Japan,
Macao-China, Hong Kong-China, Shanghai-China,
and Chinese Taipei.
American students, benchmarked against other
developed nations, performed about average in
reading and science and below average in math.
While they managed to score slightly above average
on problem solving, U.S. students were still outper-
formed by their counterparts in Canada, Australia,
Finland, Britain, Estonia, France, the Netherlands,
Italy, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
“Today’s 15-year-olds with poor problem-solving
skills will become tomorrow’s adults struggling to
find or keep a good job,” says Andreas Schleicher,
acting director of education and skills at the OECD.
“Policy makers and educators should reshape their
school systems and curricula to help students
develop their problem-solving skills.”
Project Lead the Way, the largest STEM-education
provider in the U.S., offers programs to help schools
Photo credit: Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images

do just that. This year, the company will be in 6,000
U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools with 7,000
programs—60 percent more than last year.
“Children have a natural curiosity,” says Vince
Bertram, Ed.D., the company’s president and CEO.
“They like to problem solve and play. Then they get to
school and we teach them how to be compliant.”
“Our programs are all problem based,” he continues.
“Traditionally, school has been about content knowl-
edge and teachers have been trained to convey infor-
mation. In the real world, you must have the skills
not only to solve problems, but to identify problems
and opportunities as well.”
However, Bertram points out, problem-solving skills
alone are not enough; workers need collaborative skills
as well. “Collaboration is what brings breakthroughs
in problem solving,” he says.
The OECD agrees. As part of the 2015 PISA, it’s
developing a new set of computer-based challeng-
es to assess the cognitive and social processes
(such as communication, organization, and con-
sensus building) that underlie collaborative prob-
lem-solving skills.
To create uniform collaborative situations in which
individuals can be fairly measured, other team
members will be represented by the testing com-
puter. As a student progresses through the prob-
lem-solving task, the computer will monitor the
current states of a problem. With each state, it will
provide a changing set of actions a student can take
to converse with other team members (e.g., through
menu-based chat interfaces) or to perform actions
to help solve the problem. The computer’s record of
all communications and actions will be used to
score the assessment.
Though improving the way we teach young people to
problem solve is a challenge that schools need to
address, parents can also foster these skills.
“As parents, we can think about questions we ask
our children and they ask us,” Bertram says. “In
particular children often ask ‘why?’ Do we turn that
question off by saying, ‘because I said so’ or ‘that’s
just the way it is?' That’s not very motivating.”
The goal, says Bertram, is for children to under-
stand how things are connected and to become
good at reasoning, so it’s better to explore why.
“Children don’t have the context we have as
parents,” he says. “We need to expand their think-
ing. You may still make the same decision, but the
child’s mind will be broadened by the explanation,
and he’ll learn that it’s OK to explore.”
Traditionally, school has
been about content knowl-
edge and teachers have
been trained to convey in-
formation. In the real
world, you must have the
skills not only to solve
problems, but to identify
problems and opportunities
as well”

BY BILL BULKELEY
UKRAINE
CONFLICT
BRINGS
SUPPLYCHAIN
WOES
Photo credit: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Crises, natural or manmade, often put a strain on
supply chains, and the current turmoil in Ukraine is
a reminder that globalization creates risks as well
as opportunities.
Natural gas that heats much of Europe, auto parts
going to Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic,
grain for Europe and the Middle East, and ammuni-
tion for American hunters all travel through Ukraine
or are exported from its farms and factories.
Since revolutionaries in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, ousted
Viktor Yanukovych in February, trade with Ukraine
and Russia has been under constant threat. Falling
currencies, blocked supplies, uncertainty over new
borders and customs, and tax fluctuations are all
impacting production and distribution across Russia
and Ukraine. And with the U.S. threatening increased
sanctions, the situation is likely to be exacerbated.
On the metals front for instance, several key U.S.
manufacturers’ supply chains could feel the crunch.
Boeing buys nearly a third of its titanium for its
planes (translating into an $18 million total spend)
from Russia, mostly from VSMPO-Avisma, the
largest titanium producer in the world.
So far, sanctions have been limited to financial
restrictions on a few Russian leaders, but for sup-
Local workers from a steel mill demolish barricades outside the headquarters of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
ply-chain managers it’s a balancing act between
staying put and looking at alternate suppliers and
supply routes.
“Assessing risks is complex because politics sets
the agenda,” says Rosemary Coates, president of
Blue Silk Consulting, a Silicon Valley firm. “If you
have a factory in Ukraine, you may have to shift
production, and that could have a significant impact
on the place that you leave.”
Coates, who advises Nike Inc. among other clients,
says that companies are increasingly sensitive about
the impact of their actions on local economies. “We
have to be aware that by closing a plant, we’re caus-
ing a lot of misery for people. We have to ask, ‘what
will be the impact on the people and the politics?’”
Coates says that production in both Ukraine and
Russia can be challenging, with widespread
corruption and petty crime. But she says that
Ukraine in particular is well-integrated into east-
ern European supply chains, particularly with
Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Germa-
ny. Russia is Ukraine’s biggest trading partner.
Ukraine exports cars, planes, and other goods to
Russia, and it is dependent on Russian supplies of
oil and gas.
Photo credit: Daniel Mihailescu /AFP/Getty Images

Photo credit: Daniel Mihailescu /AFP/Getty Images
“We have to be aware that by closing
a plant, we’re causing a lot of
misery for people. We have to ask,
‘what will be the impact on the
people and the politics?’”

Ukraine is one of the most industrialized regions of
the former Soviet Union, making myriad compo-
nents and finished goods. It exports commodities
including steel, sunflower oil, grain, and honey, but
the crisis has left customers, suppliers, and inves-
tors nervous. Industrial production in Ukraine
decreased six percent in April, 2014 when com-
pared to April, 2013, according to the National
Bank of Ukraine.
The automotive industry is one of the hardest hit,
with the international community considering
Crimea as occupied territory. One large carmaker
says that U.S. and EU authorities have “unofficially”
warned carmakers to avoid doing business in the
Crimea peninsula.
There’s even confusion around how to label goods
leaving the region. Stickers saying “Made in
Ukraine” or “Made in Russia” are affixed to manu-
factured goods or printed on textiles to tell consum-
ers where a product originated from. Even though
Russia says it has annexed Crimea and a vote there
approved the takeover, the U.S. still requires that
any goods from Crimea be labelled “Made in
Ukraine,” says Coates.
“This is a very significant point being made by the
U.S. government,” Coates says. “Goods coming from
the Crimea cannot be labeled ‘Made in Russia’
because the U.S. government does not recognize
the Russian government there.”
While the recent spike in violence in the eastern
regions of Ukraine has disrupted automotive busi-
nesses on the ground, with bands of criminals in
Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts robbing and looting at
will, wildly fluctuating import tax on autos is impact-
ing both Ukraine and Russia on yet another level.
Early in the year, the Ukrainian government
announced it would cut in half and then eliminate
special duties on imported cars. The plans, strongly
opposed by Ukraine automakers, were a response
to protesters who wanted cheaper cars. But after
president Yanukovych fled the country, the parlia-
ment reversed course and raised duties, including
imposing new excise taxes.
Foreign manufacturers who are located in Ukraine
to get access to the Russian market are concerned
that Russia may raise tariffs on Ukraine cars to the
same 25 percent rate imposed on other imports.
That would effectively close the Russian market to
Ukraine manufacturers.
In more obscure supply-chain news, the unrest in
Ukraine was apparently to blame for a shortage of
ammunition at a Florida firearms show in March. Phil
White, editor of TheFirearmBlog, says that shipments
of ammunition from Russia and Ukraine for Wolf
Performance Ammunition, a California-based import-
er of Russian bullets, were recently interrupted.
Wolf is a sponsor and the sole supplier of ammunition
for the show. The company was told a ship traveling
from a Russian port had been scheduled to pick up a
shipment from a Ukraine ammunition factory at a
port in Crimea, but the supplies hadn’t arrived.
Even if Russia and Ukraine avoid outright warfare or
further occupations of territory, the area is likely to
be a continuing source of worry to companies with
operations or suppliers in the region.

Springing through the Australian outback, the
kangaroo is a model of efficiency.
Thanks to its unique method of travel, this marsupi-
al is capable of moving quickly for incredible lengths
of time without using large amounts of energy.
Every time a kangaroo’s feet hit the ground, the
Achilles tendon in its hind legs stretches to store
BY MICHELLE REIS
Next
Industrial
Robot
Could be
A KANGAROO
energy, and it uses that power for the next jump. You
can think of it working in a similar way to a spring in
a pogo stick.
Now the kangaroo’s graceful movements have
been recreated by a development team from Festo’s
Bionic Learning Network, a German-based supplier
of automation technology.

near the hip of the roo kick in, making the biomi-
metic animal lean forward. When it reaches a
certain angle, energy is released and allows the
robot to hop.
Integrated controls, condition monitoring, and
real-time diagnostics allows the robot to have
stability while jumping and landing. If for any reason
the angle of the jump is off, the system can monitor
itself, consider the variables that could cause a
shaky take-off or touch down, and use a set of
algorithms to make sure it does not crash. When it’s
not busy hopping about, the BionicKangaroo rests
on its small front arms for stability.
For power, the BionicKangaroo relies on two sourc-
es: A small compressor that provides high pressure
air for the pneumatic muscles that power the
jumping, and lightweight batteries that energizes
the entire robot.
Probably the most fascinating aspect of this whole
project is how the engineers decided to control this
tiny robo-marsupial. Instead of using something like
an RC remote, the BionicKangaroo is directed
through gesture controls.
The BionicKangaroo stands just slightly over three
feet and weighs 15 pounds. The robot can hop a
distance of about two and a half feet and can jump
over a foot high. Through a combination of pneu-
matic and electric drive technology, it is able to
recover, store, and retrieve energy to use on its next
bounce, just like the animal it’s modeled after.
To achieve this, an elastic band made of rubber is
fastened to the back of the robot’s foot, parallel to a
pneumatic cylinder on the knee joint. This band
serves the same function as the Achilles tendon in a
real kangaroo, cushioning the hop while simultane-
ously absorbing kinetic energy and releasing it for
the next jump.
“Most interestingly, we combine electrical and
pneumatic drives,” explains Annette Ostertag of
Festo’s technology division of the corporate
communication team. “The electrical drives are
necessary for precise movements, while the
pneumatic actuators are necessary for the dynamic
jumping behavior.”
When the robot is ready to make a leap, pressurized
gas makes the elastic tendon tense up and motors

A human wearing a Myo armband from Thalmic Labs
can interact with the robot without having to touch
any inputs. The band’s Microsoft-Kinect-like technol-
ogy is Bluetooth-enabled and has a range of 54 feet.
“We decided to use gesture control as a possibility
of man-machine-interaction, a field that is very
interesting for us,” explains Ostertag. “We are
constantly researching in the field of handling and
control of automation technologies, and gesture
control could be one possibility in the future.”
Showcasing the power of biomimetics
Consumers excited by the prospect of owning their
own robo-kangaroo may be disappointed to hear
that they won’t be in stores anytime soon. Festo
doesn’t intend to make its creation available for
everyday individuals to play with. Instead, this
project is a tool in showing the power of biomimet-
ics—a field of science that uses natural-world
designs to create things to benefit humans—and
inspire would-be engineers.
In practical terms, Festo believes that the robot’s
unique movements, based on the principal of
“recovering, storing, and releasing energy based on
a natural model” to facilitate movement, could be an
intelligent way of recovering energy in industrial
automation and might be applied to the automated
tools it makes for factory assembly lines.
“Together, the electrical and pneumatic drive
technology leads to a highly dynamic system which
is still very energy-efficient,” says Ostertag. “All of
these learnings will find their way into the products
of the future.”
The BionicKangaroo isn’t the first bionic robot that
the Festo team has created. In fact, the company
has made a name for itself with its various “biomi-
metic” robot designs that take their operational
characteristics from animals. The Bionic Learning
network has created everything from bionic jellyfish
to an incredibly realistic robotic seagull, applying
principles from nature to inspire new technical
applications and industrial practices.
Photo coutesey of Festo

3D printing has clearly taken off in many diverse
industries, from airplane manufacturing to health-
care and automotive, but is there or will there ever be
a demand for 3D printers in the consumer market?
As the Micro Kickstarter campaign has proven, there
is a demand for a consumer printer. A huge one.
Only 11 minutes after the crowdfunding crusade for
“the first truly consumer 3D printer” went live, it
reached its $50,000 goal. In 25 hours, it hit $1
million (faster than the Pebble Watch, which took 28
hours) and in less than three days, the campaign hit
the $2 million mark, making it one of the most
successful Kickstarters of all time.
Created by Maryland-based M3D, the Micro 3D
printer is one of the most affordable 3D printers to
hit the market. Competitor 3D printers targeting
consumers, such as MakerBot’s Replicator Mini
($1,375) and the Pirate3D Buccaneer (around $500)
are priced much, much higher than the Micro
(starting at $299 for backers).
BY MICHELLE REIS
I
Photo courtesy of M3D

But the affordable price isn’t the only attribute
attracting consumers; the printer’s aesthetic is also a
crowd pleaser. The cubed printer is small enough to
fit comfortably on a desk or bookshelf, is lightweight
and portable, and comes in a variety of colors.
The plug-and-play feel to the Micro is an improve-
ment over other consumer 3D printers. It comes
ready assembled with auto-leveling and auto-cali-
bration built into the printer head so it can print
without needing user intervention, and PLA, ABS, or
the company’s filament spools fit inside the box to
help with portability and keep a sleek, clean look.
Due to its size, users won’t be able to print large
items, but could print vases, custom cookie cutters,
or toys for their pets.
Simple software: a huge selling point
The Micro stands to overcome a major obstacle that
has stood in the way between 3D printers and consum-
er adoption: difficult and non-intuitive software.
A custom companion software “as interactive and
enjoyable as a game” could be the answer. The app
is designed for touchscreen use, supports drag
and drop interactions, and allows you to easily
tweak your model before sending it to print. Micro
owners will also be able to search for objects to
print online and organize their 3D models into a
library to access later.
This simplified software could play a huge role in
expanding the 3D-printer market beyond hobbyists
with the right technical knowhow to the everyday
consumer who doesn’t know about CAD design.
Backers can expect their printers to arrive between
August 2014 and March 2015, and worldwide distri-
bution will start after that.
Will the Micro finally bring 3D printing to the masses?
At the moment, 3D printers aren’t in high demand.
High costs and complexity (due to printer setup and
the need for CAD software knowledge) has made the
technology something that only appeals to hobbyists.
But interest within the consumer sector is increas-
ing. Strategy Analytics reports the consumer 3D
printing market could hit $10 billion by 2024 and
then $70 billion by 2030, and that there is the
potential for more than 50 percent of households in
the United States and Europe to own a 3D printer.
And according to analyst company Canalys, crowd-
funding efforts like kickstarters are also helping 3D
printing gain significant traction among consumers.
“To date, the enterprise space has been the focus of
3D printing activities," says Canalys senior analyst
Tim Shepherd. "While enterprise engagement will
continue to grow, it looks to be the consumer space
that will drive shipments in the near future. We are
already seeing significant numbers of early technol-
ogy adopters and hobbyists investing in relatively
cheap 3D printers. As prices continue to fall, the
technology improves and use cases are tested, this
trend is set to continue."
Companies like Staples and Adobe are also helping
3D printing go mainstream. Staples has partnered
with 3D Systems, a provider of 3D content-to-print
solutions, to offer 3D print solutions, and it also
sells consumer printers, while Adobe has intro-
duced 3D printing capabilities to Photoshop CC.
The Micro’s incredibly fast success on Kickstarter is
also a good indication that consumers are ready for
3D printers to go mainstream, but only time will tell
if this printer will truly be the groundbreaking
technology its makers claim it to be.
Until the Micro is in the hands of real users and
they write their reviews, there won’t be any way to
tell if the product is a hit.
Photo courtesy of M3D

3 AMAZING
ROBOTS BY MARIA DOYLE

It is said that we know more about outer space than
we do about the vast oceans on this planet. But new
types of robots—underwater autonomous vehicles
or AUVs—are helping to open the ocean to
researchers in new ways. Marine robots today can
rebuild coral ecosystems, measure the thickness of
ice floes, and explore the ocean floors.
Restoring and conserving coral reefs
Twenty percent of the world’s coral reefs have
already been destroyed due to both natural and
man-made events. Hurricanes, fishing, water
traffic, pollution, and too many visitors have all
damaged reefs.
A project called Coralbots currently underway at
Heriot-Watt University in Scotland has a vision to
use autonomous underwater robots to help repair
and rebuild the world’s coral reefs.
Left on their own, coral reef regrowth and regenera-
tion is a very slow process due to pieces of coral
breaking off and getting scattered. The Coralbots
help find and collect pieces of living coral and bring
them back together to speed regrowth efforts. The
bots can also repair reefs in deeper water where
human divers can’t help.
“The Coralbots project is making steady progress
on coral recognition software. We achieved
state-of-the-art results in coral recognition recently
and are looking at further improvement with ‘deep
learning’ methods,” explains David Corne, a profes-
sor at Heriot-Watt University.
Corne’s colleague, Lea-Anne Henry adds, “Our
dedicated robot platform will be in place soon—
probably a VideoRay Remotely Operated Vehicle. Our
Belize associate is also taking a series of high-reso-
lution images to help us prepare for the first Belize
mission. In parallel, we are already looking ahead to
the next generation of Coralbots which will make
use of soft robotics to handle delicate specimens.”
The startup phase of Coralbots—which included
research into swarm ‘micro-rules’ that guide Coral-
bot behavior, computer vision capabilities, and robot
arm/gripper prototypes—was supported by seed
funding and efforts from numerous volunteer
students and scientists, and the project is actively
seeking new donors.
Researching the Antarctic climate
Australian researchers are using AUVs to map the
underside of Antarctic ice with multi-beam sonar
while helicopters conduct 3D mapping from above.
The robot, swimming 65 feet below the ice, uses a
back and forth “lawnmower” grid pattern to scan the
ice, and stores the data in an on-board computer.
After each survey, this data is converted into a 3D
map of that section of ice. This project is helping
researchers understand more about the effects of
climate, since sea ice thickness is one of the most
critical indicators of global climate change.
“Satellites have successfully observed the variability
and change in sea ice ‘extent’ occurring at both
poles over the last 30 odd years, but changes to sea
ice ‘thickness,’ and therefore overall volume, is
challenging due to the complex nature of sea ice
structure and its dynamic behavior,” says Guy
Williams, the lead researcher for the Antarctic
Climate and Ecosystems’ Undersea Ice Project.
The underwater robot is able to take in-situ mea-
surements of sea ice thickness, something that was
constrained to ship-based observations and manual
drill lines in the past. Ship-based and manual
drilling observations are often limited because of
the logistic and seasonal considerations. With the
AUVs, floe-scale measurements totaling over 1.5
million square feet of under-ice topography have
been taken, providing new information regarding ice
draft and deformation that far exceeds traditional
data sets.
Photo courtesy of ACE CRC

“The retrieval of floe-scale, 3D topography ‘under’
the ice together with video images has taken us to
the ‘dark side of the moon’ in terms of sea ice
observations—something that simply wasn’t possi-
ble before,” Williams concludes.
Ocean exploration for everyone
Most underwater exploration projects require
significant funding to launch, but entrepreneurs
Eric Stackpole and David Lang have built an open
source, do-it-yourself underwater robot called
OpenROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) to make
underwater exploration easy and affordable.
In a video, Stackpole explains, “The allure of the
ocean is that it is right there…and the ocean is
three-dimensional, so 95 percent of where life can
exist on this planet has never been explored.”
The beauty of the OpenROV is that is looks like it
could be a child’s remote-controlled toy, but has true
scientific value. Oceanographers who are accus-
tomed to expensive technical equipment are enthu-
siastic about this type of robot, which only costs
$849, and believe it can help further their research.
The OpenROV was initially funded by a Kickstarter
campaign that raised more than $111,000 on a
$20,000 goal. Venture capitalist True Ventures
added $1.3 million to the funding, enabling the
company to deliver more than 500 kits since 2012.
“It shouldn’t take a research grant to do exploration, it
should take curiosity—and that’s what we’re all about,”
states Stackpole. “If we can crowdsource exploration,
there’s a lot of good that can come from that.”
Underwater robots continue to be engineered with
greater features and capabilities, as well as with
accessibility and entry-level pricing. These advanc-
es will aid scientists on their diverse missions to
further explore the Earth’s oceans.
“It shouldn’t take a research grant to do ex-
ploration, it should take curiosity—and that’s
what we’re all about”
Photo courtesy of OpenROV
Photo courtesy of OpenROV

Imagine an architect designing a house and then instead
of hauling in lumber, the builder sets up a giant 3D
printer on the lot. A few days later a house with
a foundation and walls is ready to finish.
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
3D-Printed Homes
Gain Momentum

Image courtesy of Contour Crafting

3D printing on a commercial scale may be some time
away, but the process is gaining momentum.
China’s WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co.
recently built 10 houses in 24 hours for less than
$5,000 each at the Shanghai Hi-Tech Industrial Park.
The 2,150 square foot houses were created using a
proprietary mixture of recycled mill tailings and other
waste ingredients, along with glass fiber to form a
concrete aggregate poured into layers.
The project used four printers 105 feet by 33 feet
wide and 22 feet tall to print the components in a
factory, which were then trucked to the building site.
Designers planned for windows, plumbing, electrical
systems, and insulation, which can be added after
the walls go up.
This isn’t the only breakthrough in large-scale
3D printing.
The Contour Crafting system, developed by Univer-
sity of Southern California professor Behrokh
Khoshnevis, can print a house on-site in 24 hours.
Moving back and forth across the building site on
rails, the giant-size 3D printer, which looks like a
crane with a hanging delivery nozzle, layers
concrete to create walls based on an architect’s
design. It reinforces the walls as it builds, and leaves
spaces for things like plumbing and electric.
Once the structure is complete, workers come in with
doors and windows and provide the finishing touches.
3D printed houses are mostly focused on providing
low-cost housing for the indigent or those displaced
by storms. For instance, temporary housing could
be erected in the wake of a severe hurricane. Or
refugees could move out of tents and into a safe,
durable concrete house.
The Canal House project in Amsterdam has a slightly
different goal: to keep up with rapidly expanding city
limits. It uses printed plastic sections that fit togeth-
er like a child’s building toy. The oversized 3D printer,
called de KamerMaker or “room builder,” creates
honeycomb bricks from molten plastic, that builders
then snap together like Legos.
The plastic “ink” used for construction is made with
industrial glue that’s 80 percent vegetable oil.
The goal is to print with sustainable and recycled
Visitors view 3D printed
building block at the
opening weekend of the 3D
Print Canal House expo.
Photo courtesy of: DUS Architects

materials, but the printer can use any material that
melts at the right temperature and then hardens again.
The first segment, a corner of the house with a
portion of a staircase, took about a week to print.
Eventually the internal structure will be filled with
foam that dries to the hardness of concrete.
The project’s founders, DUS architects, expect it to
take three years to print and assemble the entire
three-story canal house. The architects hope 3D
printing will allow housing to keep up with the
growing population migration to the cities. Also,
recycled materials can be incorporated into the
building, cutting down the cost of moving building
materials. The designers say 3D printing offers
greater customization, modifying designs for a
homeowner’s needs and tastes.
In the meantime, the site has become an attraction
in itself. Personal tours as well as company and
school tours are available to interested parties.
The most recent visitor to visit the site? President
Barak Obama.
Full size 3D printed building blocks at the opening weekend
of the Canal House expo.
Barak Obama visits the Canal House project in Amsterdam.

© 2014, PTC Inc. All rights reserved. Information described herein is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be taken as a guarantee,
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