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1906 – Apparatus for Submarine Recovering Operations Patent by Becchi and Tarantini.

Publication number US872888 A
Publication type Grant
Publication date Dec 3, 1907
Filing date Nov 15, 1906
Inventors Angelo Becchi, Giovanni Battista Tarantini
Original Assignee Angelo Becchi, Giovanni Battista Tarantini

APPARATUS FOR SUBMARINE RECOVERING OPERATIONS.

This invention has for its object to provide an apparatus for submarine recovering operations, for fishing of pearls, sponges, corals etc.

It consists of a submergible chamber movable forward and in every sense, as may be required for its operations. Said chamber is to be occupied by the operator and is internally furnished with all the necessary means for submarine inspections as well as for catching and holding the objects to be recovered or fished. These means are directed and managed by  the operator on the inside of the chamber, but they act partially on the objects that are outside of it.

When the apparatus is to be employed for fishing sponges etc., the arm is substituted by another one shown in Figs. 8 and 9. This arm consists of two, three or four steel pipes telescoped into each other, the most internal one contains a bar of steel furnished at its end with a special shovel, that maybe changed according to the different kind of fishing that is to be done. Said arm is in constant communication with a pump by means of a flexible pipe 66 another pipe 65 serves to let the water out of the arm, after it has worked in it. A cock 70 will, according to its position, (1st) establish the communication between the water feeding pipe 66 and canal 57, or (2nd) connect pipe 66 with canal 56 and at the same time connect pipe 65 with canal 57 or else (3rd) close any connection between pipe 66 and the inside of the arm. When the water under pressure arrives through canal 57- it will push the pistons 59 68, with which the extremities of the telescoped steel pipes are provided and compel the pipes to slide out of each other, thus extending the arm forward, outside of the apparatus. When wishing to shorten this arm, the operator turns the cock 70 letting thus enter the water under pressure into canal 56, it will then flow through pipe 60 into the space 71 into canal 58 and from this pass through the hole 61 into the space 72. In the spaces 71 and 72 the water under pressure acting on. the opposed face of the pistons 59 and 68 will push them back and the water that is on the other side of the pistons will run from cylinder 67, and pipes 65 the connection with said pipe, being controlled by the position of the cock 70. By means of this movement that extends or shortens this arm, it will be easy to pluck off, wrest and detach the various objects, as sponges, coral etc., to be fished and it will be easy also to bring the operating point of the arm to the place and point required.

Having now particularly described the 2. An apparatus for submarine recovering and fishing operations consisting of an outer casing of an ovoidal form, provided with a: ………

5. In a device of the class described, a shell, derrick arms extending outwardly from the shell, a receptacle suspended from the derrick arms, means within the shell for operating the derrick arms, means to introduce material into the receptacle, and means to move the shell.  

6. In a device of the class described, a shell, derrick arms extending outwardly from the shell, a receptacle supported by the derrick arms, means within the shell for manipulating the derrick arms, and means operable from within the shell for introducing material into the receptacle.

7. In a device of the class described, a shell, derrick arms extending outwardly from the shell, a receptacle suspended from the derrick arms, a telescoping arm extending outwardly from the shell above the receptacle, means to move the sections of the telescoping arm's

8. In a device of the class described, a shell, derrick arms extending outwardly from the shell, a receptacle suspended from the derrick arms, a telescoping arm extending outwardly from the shell of the receptacle, means to move the sections of the telescoping arm longitudinally, and means within the shell for moving the telescoping arm angularly upon the receptacle.

See other early Underwater Robots here.

Roberto Galeazzi Sr. with his suit.

In the early 1920s, the Frenchman Alain Terme acquired a Neufeldt and Kuhnke suit for undertaking attempts to locate several shipwrecks with valuable cargoes. One of them was the Egypt. In 1924 the famous Italian company SO.RI.MA. (Società Ricuperi Marittima) was founded, more or less with the same objective. Two years later Terme joined forces with SORIMA and transferred the armoured diving suit to them.   

The initiative to simplify the armoured suit to increase its practicality and functionality was created by SORIMA. This company had employed the Neufeldt and Kuhnke suits of differing types (second and third generation) for recovering valuable cargoes from several shipwrecks in deep water. (e.g. Washington, Elisabethville, Egypt) SORIMA acquired the Italian rights to the ADS suit. The major modifications included: (1) The total amount of ball and socket joints was reduced to six to further limit potential leakage, (2) The entry opening (don / doff hatch) was moved to the top of the upper torso so the trunk could be cast as one solid structure, (3) The buoyancy tank was moved to a lower level on the trunk. The last measure gave the suit a more natural centre of gravity while submerged and had the added benefit that the suit entry opening floated higher above the water when not submerged. Also, in a latter phase, the straight elbows were replaced by curved and lighter ones, an innovation added by Robert Galeazzi.

Above and below text copied from www.therebreathersite.nl.

Early diving operations with armoured diving suits at great depths, such as those carried out by SORIMA, had conclusively shown that nine/tenths of the work for which even the best armoured suit was capable, could be performed equally well by a simple observation chamber like that designed by Robert H. Davis in 1912. It was evident that in many cases the diver in his armoured suit was merely an observer and director of operations. He stood by and gave orders through the telephone to the surface crew with regards to placing of explosives or the maneuvering of a grab. In the late 1920s and in the early 1930s (i.e.1928 -> 1934)  Neufeldt and Kuhnke and Galeazzi, relying on the considerable field experience put together by SORIMA divers, largely cooperated to manufacture improved and more reliable armoured suits. In 1935 the Galeazzi Company started their own ADS which in 1938 established the world depth record of 200 meters (600 feet).

Roberto Galeazzi Sr. with his son.

Source: Popular Mechanics,  JUly 1938.

Diver Johnno Johnstone from Australia in his Galeazzi suit.

Patent info:

Update from cyberneticzoo: With regard to the new spherical joints, Neufeldt and Kuhnke had a patent to cover this idea. German DE479563, Spherical segmented body casings, 18 Jul 1929 – see also GB285430.

Above image from Great Britain patent.

Interesting to note that Galeazzi had a similar US [US1808599] and Italian patent. The US patent filed 22 Sep 1927 and granted 2 Jun 1931.

Publication number    US1808599 A. Invention Name: Resistant submarine hull or the like
Publication type    Grant
Publication date    Jun 2, 1931
Filing date    Sep 22, 1927
Priority date    Oct 25, 1926
Inventors    Roberto Galeazzi
Original Assignee    Roberto Galeazzi

See related Diving Armour by Neufeldt and Kuhnke here.

See other early Underwater Robots here.

Figure 17: Conceptual drawing of the Litton atmospheric diving suit.
In the late 1960's Litton Industries Space Science Laboratories announced the development of a new design of an atmospheric diving suit (Figure 17) capable of operating to depths of 600 feet (Fonda-Bonardi, 1967). The UX-1, for underwater experimental, suit was to use a combination of constant-volume convolute joints and rotary joints.
Their basic principle was to place the geometric axis of the suit joints as close as possible to the anatomical axis of the operator's articulation. The suit design surpassed any that had been built to date, though it never made it to production. In 1974, prior to inventing the Newtsuit, Phil Nuytten bought all rights and patents to the Litton suit (Harris, 1985).

Source: A SURVEY AND ENGINEERING DESIGN OF ATMOSPHERIC DIVING SUITS – A REPORT by MICHAEL ALBERT THORNTON

Details of the suit design were presented at the Advanced Marine Vehicles Meeting in 1967 by Giusto Fonda-Bonardi, director of applied research, and Charles P. Buckley, manager of underwater system development at Litton.

1965 –  "XU-1" Deep Sea Diving Suit – Fonda-Bonardi / Buckley for Litton Systems

Name: Articulated joint

Publication number    US3421158 A
Publication type    Grant
Publication date    Jan 14, 1969
Filing date    Sep 10, 1965
Priority date    Sep 10, 1965
Also published as    DE1296042B
Inventors    Fonda-Bonardi Giusto
Original Assignee    Litton Systems Inc

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An articulated joint for interconnecting to portions of a deep sea diving suit which is adapted to enclose adjacent members of the human body, comprising a plurality of substantially spherical segments, including two end segments secured respectively to the adjacent portions of the diving suit, and at least one intermediate segment, adapted to be nested in a predetermined angular relationship as the joint is flexed. The segments are interconnected by at least one gear and linkage assembly for distributing an angle of flexure of the joint in a predetermined proportion among the segments and for reventing the segments from separating. The compressive force of the surrounding water on the spherical segments is transmitted through at least one roller assembly.

This invention relates to articulated joints for a low pressure diving suit, and more particularly to an improved form of articulated joint which maintains a constant displacement volume when flexed.

In a diving suit it is necessary to provide the wearer with an environment that will protect him and that will permit the accomplishment of useful functions. The articulated joints of the invention allow a mobility to the wearer which is comparable with that of a free swimmer, provide thermal protection to the wearer for long periods in cold water, and permit the air pressure in the suit to be maintained at a normal pressure of substantially one atmosphere.

In the prior art, numerous forms of articulated joints are employed for providing mobility to a diver. In the most common form of diving suit the joints form a part of a fabric suit attached to a rigid helmet. Protection from water pressure is afforded to the diver by maintaining the internal air pressure of the suit substantially equal to the external pressure. Subjection of the diver to extremely high air pressure has the disadvantage of a mandatory period of decompression when surfacing. A period of decompression limits the maximum operational period possible and prohibits immediate recovery of the diver in an emergency.

Some diving suits of the prior art employ joints which vary in displacement volume when flexed. A changing volume during flexure, particularly in a low pressure suit, requires that the diver expend energy on the surrounding water in addition to the energy required to perform a desired task.

Even in a suit using a constant volume joint, as the depth of the surrounding water increases, the joint may be incapable of carrying the increased load caused by the increased water pressure. Further, the increased water pressure may cause adjacent moving parts to bind due to friction between the parts, which requires excessive effort by the wearer to move the joint. Another problem encountered is that the bulk of the joint, e.g. thickness of material, packing, and the like, limits the allowable angle of rotation of the joint to substantially less than the range of flexure of the body members. The present invention, on the other hand, overcomes the foregoing and other disadvantages of the flexible joints of the prior art by providing improved constant volume joints which are completely flexible when subjected to pressure because auxiliary means are used to support the pressure load. The characteristics of the auxiliary means are such that friction between the parts is not increased with depth. In accordance with the concept of the invention, the constant volume joints comprise a pair of end segments, having the shape of spherical segments-of-one-base, with each contoured to form a port which adapted to receive the limb of a wearer; a plurality of ring-shaped intermediate spherical-segments-of-two-bases; a means for intercoupling the spherical segments to distribute the angle of movement of the joint among the segments and to carry compressive forces across the joint between the end segments; and a tubular section of flexible, non-permeable material, such as for example-rubberized fabric, affixed to each segment and circumscribing the intermediate segments to create a seal between the segments.

More specifically, a plurality of shells each having the form of a spherical segment, are interconnected to form a structure having the shape of a series of spherical segments of diminishing diameter, in which each segment is partially nested in the segment of next larger diameter. The segments are constructed to withstand compressive force and to maintain substantially constant volume when subjected to pressure. The segments are interconnected by gears and linkages so that, when a bending moment is applied to the joint, each segment rotates inside the segment of next larger diameter to permit the volume of the joint to remain constant throughout the range of flexure. The gears function to distribute, in a predetermined proportion, the angle of flexure of the joint, among the segments. The connecting linkages prevent the segments from separating. When the joint is immersed in a fluid, the pressure of the fluid on the joint tends to cause each segment to be enveloped in the segment of next larger diameter. Means for preventing the collapse of the joint in all relative angular positions of the segments, within the range of flexure, is provided by affixing a pair of rollers to each of the alternate odd segments. Each roller in the succession is held in pure rolling contact with adjacent rollers to bear the force of the fluid. Force on the alternate even segments of the succession is transmitted by the connecting linkages to the load bearing rollers. When the joint is flexed, a lune-shaped surface area on one side of each segment, defined by two intersecting great circles, is enveloped beneath the surface of the adjacent next larger segment. An equal lune-shaped surface area is exposed on the opposite side of each segment. Therefore, flexure of the joint does not change the surface area of the joint. Because of the symmetry of construction, provided by the spherical segments, the joint also maintains constant volume. Since the joint displaces a constant volume during flexure, it may be flexed without expending human energy on the fluid creating the outside pressure. A pressure seal between the surfaces of each shell is provided by a flexible, non-permeable fabric which convolutes over the enveloped areas and covers the exposed areas of the joint. As the joint is flexed, the fabric convolutes between segments without friction.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to enclose a human being in an environment having a first fluid pressure, which environment is substantially constant pressure in the presence of surrounding higher fluid pressures.

It is also an object of this invention to allow movement of the enclosed human being without expending energy on the surrounding fluid.

It is a further object of this invention to improve constant volume joints for body-enclosing suits to reduce the energy expended by the wearer in moving the suit.

It is likewise an object of this invention to allow greater range of flexibility in the joints of diving suits.

It is also an object of the invention to provide for enclosing a diver or other person in a portable artificial environment corresponding to that existing at some relatively low altitude on the surface of the earth, which artificial environment is constant for any relatively lower depth and independent of the environment outside the suit.

It is an object of the invention to provide a diving suit adapted for use at great depths to maintain a substantially normal pressurized environment for the wearer.

It is an object of the invention to provide a constant volume diving suit adapted for use at great depths with flexible joint connections for facilitating maximum freedom of movement with minimum human energy expenditure.

It is an object of the invention to provide flexible joints which employ successive segments intercoupled to maintain the displacement of the joint substantially constant when it is subjected to pressure.

It is an object of the invention to provide flexible joints for withstanding compressive force when subjected to external pressure.

It is an object of the invention to provide flexible joints which maintain substantially constant displacement when flexed.

It is an object of the invention to provide flexible joints which employ successive segments intercoupled to prevent relative axial separation when a joint under pressure is flexed.

It is an object of the invention to provide flexible joints which employ successive segments intercoupled so that the angle of flexure is distributed into relative angular movement of the segments in a predetermined proportion.

It is an object of the invention to provide flexible joints which employ successive and interconnected segments for withstanding compressive force in any position of the joint Within a range of flexure.

It is an object of the invention to provide means for withstanding compressive force received in any direction within a range of operation.

It is an object of the invention to provide means for constraining relative angular displacement between structural elements to distribute, in a predetermined proportion, the angular displacement between said elements and for carrying compressive forces across said element.

Before the XU-1, Giusto Fonda-Bonardi designed a constant volume joint for a space suit. [Trivia – Before that, he was designing fusion reactors!]

Name: Constant volume joint

Publication number    US3242499 A
Publication type    Grant
Publication date    Mar 29, 1966
Filing date    Sep 7, 1962
Priority date    Sep 7, 1962
Inventors    Giusto Fonda-Bonardi
Original Assignee    Litton Systems Inc

An earlier Litton space suit, the Mark 1.

Obituary – In Memory of Giusto Fonda-Bonardi

Giusto Fonda-Bonardi (89) passed away peacefully on May 16, 2011. Born April 15,1922 in Trieste, Italy he was commissioned at the Italian Naval Academy in 1943, and came to the US aboard an Italian submarine in 1944 to develop anti-submarine weapons with the U.S. Navy. In the ensuing 65 years he worked as a physicist and engineer in southern California's flagship companies such as Rotoflow, Power Industries, Litton and Hughes Aircraft. He developed over 39 patents in the fields of inertial guidance, radar and microwave applications, magneto-hydrodynamics, plasma containment, electronic circuits, space and underwater protective systems, thermo-dynamics and gas dynamics. For the last 25 years he managed his own consulting company, Meruit, specializing in computation fluid dynamics and expander-compressor systems. As a life senior member of the IEEE, Mr. Fonda-Bonardi published extensively in scientific journals throughout his professional career. He recently wrote a book entitled The Persistence of Myth.

See other early Underwater Robots here.

In 1906 the Swedish weekly Hvar 8 Dag published this photograph of an interesting diving apparatus, designed by the Italian inventor Giuseppe Restucci.  This is how the weekly described the apparatus: "The arms are artificial, and are operated from the inside by the diver. There is an electric lantern on the helmet.Very heavy objects can be lifted by this new model, which has been officially approved by the Italian Navy." Source: here.

Restucci's 1906 Great Britain Patent: No. 19771  [GB190619771A]

THE LITERARY DIGEST, VOLUME XXXIV, JANUARY, 1907 — JUNE, 1907

An Ingenious Diving-apparatus.— A new diving-machine, devised by Joseph Restucci, a mechanical engineer of the
Italian Navy, is described in The American Inventor, quoting a report of United States Consul J. J. Brittain, who says that it has proved a success in experimental tests in deep-sea diving. Says the paper named above :

"The machine is constructed of iron one centimeter (three-eighths of an inch) in thickness, and is large enough to contain a man standing upright, leaving him a certain amount of liberty of movement. The form of the machine is cylindrical, with the upper part shaped like a spherical hood. The front of this hood is furnished with magnifying glasses to permit of exploring the bottom of the sea. Two especially ingenious arms in bronze are attached to the machine, the forepart of each being articulated, to enable them to take the place of human arms. The right arm is terminated by a hand possessing fingers, which work exactly like the fingers of a human being. The left arm is finished with a pair of scissors and nippers. The interior of the machine contains a small electric lamp, capable of illumintaing a certain space under the water. The diver communicates with the ship escorting him by means of a telephone. A special arrangement for furnishing air permits him to remain under water for a long time. The Restucci machine has already proven its value, for by means of it a Russian ship with a large amount of gold on board, sunk near
Balaklava during the Crimean war, has been discovered."

The earlier 1904 patent: No. 29114 [GB190429114A].

RESTUCCI GUISEPPE: [en] An Improved Cuirass Diving Suit for Deep Sea Diving. December 30, 1905: No. 29114 [GB190429114-A

Henry Harris Lake, of the firm Hazeltine, Lake and Co, Patent Agents, Middlesex. Communicated by Guiseppe Restucci of Naples, the Kingdom of Italy. The patent document is headed on each page with "Lake's Improved Cuirassed Diving Suit For Deep Sea Diving."

Note: A cuirass is a piece of armour, formed of a single or multiple pieces of metal or other rigid material which covers the front of the torso.

See other early Underwater Robots here.

MASCOT – (MAnipulatore Servo COntrollato Transistorizzato)

ELECTRONIC EXHIBITION IN ROME – 1962

See MASCOT 0:59 secs into above clip at the Palace of Congresses in Rome for the IX Congress of Electronics Exhibition.

Later models of MASCOT were made by Elsag Bailey in the early 1990's. The Mascot first produced by the firm SELENIA in Rome.

The Mk I slave unit only had a single drive motor for mobility.

Note: Initial development of MASCOT started around 1958, not 1960 as mentioned in the article above.

The MASCOT slave could also be mounted on an overhead carriage.

extract from pdf – MASCOT SERVO-MANIPULATOR FOR THE MPS DIVISION – 1969

The first servo manipulator was developed at Argonne National Laboratory under R. Goertz and involved some 8 years of work. Four of them were installed 9 years ago in the remote handling facility of Argonne, since when there has been no further production. In any case, this type was too big for installation in the PS tunnel. The development work was continued by a team at CNEN (Atomic Energy Commission of Italy) under C. Mancini. The first manipulator of this development was presented around 1960, and after many improvements it was exhibited in Geneva at the time of the Atoms for Peace Conference in 1965. Finally, a new type with reduced overall dimensions was finished in 1968 and installed in an Italian fuel reprocessing plant. This version has been seen and tested by us. Its size and working capacity meet very well the requirements inside the PS tunnel.
……
The only servo manipulator which can be obtained at present is therefore the one which was developed at CNEN and will be produced now under the name of Mascot by the firm SELENIA in Rome.

ENEA'S ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF NUCLEAR ROBOTICS – An advanced teleoperator, the Mascot, has been developed by ENEA for use in radiation environments.

A Mk III version of MASCOT.

The Mascot teleoperation system
In 1961 the researchers from ENEA developed the first Mascot unit, a telemanipulator for nuclear plant operation.
This manipulator was, and still is, one of the best machines available in the world as regards the force feeling it can transmit back to the operator (force feedback signals).
The Mascot is a Master/Slave telemanipulator of the force feedback type (see Fig. 1 above). Each arm has seven servo-controlled joints: six links for six degrees-of-freedom plus a gripper. Each joint is driven by its own actuator through gears or steel cables. The control algorithm is based on comparing the position and velocity of the joints of the Master and Slave arm, sensed at the same instant. These values, the position and velocity errors, are then multiplied by adequate proportional coefficients to determine the torques to be applied to the Slave arm actuators (which is thus forced to follow the Master) and to those of the Master arm, to generate the force feedback to the operator. These torques are applied in order to minimize the position errors.

A modern commercial example of a bilateral teleoperation system for use in the nuclear industry is the MAnipolatore Servo COntrollato Transistorizzato (MASCOT) system developed by Elsag Bailey.
This features dual six-DOF, kinematically identical, master and slave arms with full bilateral control. Each arm can move up to 20 kg with an accuracy of 0.5 mm. Communication between master and slave sites is via optical fibre cable. The system has the ability to compensate for the weight of grasped objects (so that those constant forces need not be maintained by the operator). It supports reindexing (so the workspace of the slave manipulator may be larger than that of the corresponding master arm), and has a "teach and repeat" function (so sequences of operations may be stored and later replayed).

The early MASCOTs were analogue based, and only in the 1990's were they digitalized.

MASCOT Mk IV specification described in its JET tokamak upgrade in 1990.

"The Mascot IV telemanipulator was chosen by the remote handling group in the late nineteen eighties to form the basis of the remote maintenance system for the JET torus. It is a two arm Master-Slave device with 7 degrees of freedom per arm (including gripper).
The Mascot IV microprocessor (Z8000) controlled system evolved from the analogue Mascot III developed at ENEA in the 1960’s. The Master and Slave controllers are linked by a high speed 1MB serial line, allowing a separation of several kilometres. The Slave unit can be positioned anywhere inside or outside the tokamak, using specially designed robotic transporters, while the Master unit is operated from the remote handling control room.
The ‘man-in-the-loop’ philosophy of using bilateral, force-reflecting, servo-manipulators was considered necessary to provide the flexibility to handle the wide range of maintenance tasks that the constantly evolving JET project would require. Viewing is provided by the ‘Cyclops’ camera mounted on the Slave unit between the arms, two wrist mounted camera’s, a hand-held
mobile camera unit, and other in-vessel camera’s."

H.A. Ballinger, 'Machines with arms', Science Journal, October 1968

…..  
Because European governments have not sponsored extraterrestial developments of nuclear power, there has been little money or encouragement for creating free-roving machines with arms.

However, a section of the CNEN Laboratories of Italy under Ing. C. Mancini created in 1960 a note-worthy machine: the MASCOT (Manipulatore Servo Controllato Transistorizzato). This device followed and improved on the techniques of Goertz in mounting a pair of arms, with the described bilateral control, on a mobile 'dolly'. From a console fitted with an identical master arm, a stereo vision screen and a foot control for the dolly's movements, the seated operator can integrate his own subconscious neuro-muscular control into co-ordinated and complex responses of slave's movements. Its one limitation, like that of the others described, is a restriction to floor areas cleared of normal obstructions. But, of all the machines developed, the MASCOT is the most aesthetical engineered device; the machine creates a humanistic impression which generates an impulse to speak orders to the machine rather than to the operator.

The Goertz Teleoperator Model E3 was used by the Italians as a basis for development of the MASCOT servomanipulator.

A few pages from Robotics by John F. Young, 1973 giving specifications of MASCOT. See pdf Mascot-Robotics-J-Young-1973

See other early Teleoperators, Exoskeletons and Industrial Robots here.