Wuxi JACK Elderly Care Robot and Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor

A. Background and Usage of Elderly Care Robot:

1. Customer is UESTC, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, the top grade University of Science and Technology, their academy of Mechanical and Electric Engineering. Under guidance of professor and research staff, some Master’s degree students are responsible for leading this NPI (New product introduction) project;
2. Target: This Elderly Care Robot aims on helping elderly people who have lost their mobility, relieving their difficulty in urination and defecation, which has high frequency in daily life. With this robot, elderly people sit onto toilet bowl, the remaining actions will be taken care with the robot;

3. Major Timeline and Progress on Project Elderly Care Robot:

1) Initiation: The idea on this research project was launched in September 2025, officially kicked off in October 2025;
2) Robot Design and Pilot Production: Because UESTC is located at Chengdu city, a Master’s degree student had over 2 months business travel to Wuxi JACK, from October to beginning of December 2025, working together with Wuxi JACK engineers, went through periods from concept design, to gradually forming into practical design, to finally put into pilot production:
3) 3D (Three dimensional) design and validation on Elderly Care Robot by UESTC master’s degree student: (Fig.1)

4) Transport to UESTC: This robot was finished testing by end of December 2025 at Wuxi JACK, and transported to academy of Mechanical and Electric Engineering of UESTC in January 2026. After arriving at their laboratory, this robot was retrofitted on its electric control, benefitting from the powerful academic ability in electric control, to make this robot more user friendly, accurate and nimble;
5) Current Status: Today in June 2026, this Elderly Care Robot was applied as a teaching and research instruments, helping professors, researchers and Master’s degree students of UESTC academy of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, for their exploring on robot development.

B. Configuration, Function and Prospect of Elderly Care Robot:

1. Main Units of Elderly Care Robot:

1) Pedestal: This robot is movable. It has a trolley as moving pedestal. Movement is guided by means of 2 big wheels at both lateral sides of pedestal at middle position. The wheels can turn corner flexibly and conveniently;

2) Drive: The movement of the entire Elderly Care Robot is driven with servo motors;
3) Utensil: A toilet bowl is assembled onto the moving trolley;
4) Detection and Control: At its bottom, there are detection and electric control elements: Radar, position sensor, video monitor camera;
5) Safety Assurance: There are linear actuators being installed at the 4 corners of pedestal. When elderly people sit onto and stand off this Elderly Care Robot, these linear actuators will prop up, leaning against floor firmly, to prevent the robot from tumbling down, so as to make sure safety of the elderly people;
6) Management: This Elderly Care Robot can be managed on its movement by means of remote control, and monitored with video camera, to watch on condition of elderly people by family members far away not in home at that time;

2. Major Functions of Elderly Care Robot:

This robot should be able to:
1) Bearing Capacity: Elderly people of different gender, figure and weight can all sit onto its toilet bowel, and be driven to any position freely within certain territory;
2) The toilet bowel should be able to have its lid automatically opened, flushed and air dried;

3) Movement of the Entire Set of Elderly Care Robot:

a) Should be capable of moving to any place within certain scope, for example, waste outlet, to have its toilet bowel washed;
b) The movement route of the robot can be set up ahead of time, and adjusted in the process;
c) The movement of the Elderly Care Robot should be smooth, stable, with speed adjustable;
4) Mobility and Agility: Considering various living surroundings of elderly people, this Elderly Care Robot should be able to detect accurately on any obstacle in the its moving way, and bypass the obstacle freely. It should have nimble action ability, such as turning around freely and smoothly;
5) Remote Surveillance: Considering the requirement of remote monitor, under developing stage by searchers and Master’s degree students, and in the future into practical application stage by family members and children, this Elderly Care Robot should have ability of transferring its real time condition to remote monitor;

6) Other Assistance Necessary for Elderly Care Robot:

a) Support: Aiming on serving elderly people, this robot has armrest at both sides of its toilet bowel, so that when elderly people sit onto and stand off, they can use the armrest as support;
b) Elasticity: The pedestal mechanism should be adjustable, by means of springs assembled, to accommodate on elderly people of different height, and adjusting position for getting comfortableness during sitting;

3. Envision Future on Elderly Care Robot:

1) This is just starting point on this fledging research field. Under the trend of deepened aging society in China and world, more and more requirement on Elderly Care Robot will appear in academic field and industry, to meet various demand from vast group of elderly people, arisen from daily life, not only in toilet use, but also other requirement, such as batch/ cook/ wash/ taking medicine, etc. So, this time this specialized Elderly Care Robot is a good start;
2) Currently this robot only has its control logic hard wired with radar and proximity sensor. The nest step is to introduce software programming for its control and interface with other units, which is the technical strong points of UESTC. This can help upgrading the robot conveniently;
3) We can expect this is research and developing field with huge demand. In the future, Wuxi JACK will work with UESTC and more Chinese universities, to develop not only Elderly Care Robot focusing on daily toilet needs, but also more segmented field;
4) From research and pilot in this case to official commercialization, there is a long way to go.

A. Background and Function of Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor:

1. Customer is also a famous Chinese University of Science and Technology: LUT- Lanzhou University of Technology, their academy of Material Science and Engineering, Welding Technology, welding technique laboratory;
2. The purpose for piloting this Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor is also for exploring on the latest welding technology, lead by dean of the Academy of Material Science and Engineering, LUT. The difference with the Elderly Care Robot discussed in the previous segment is, this project aims on application field of industrial manufacture, not in livelihood sectors;

3. Function and Applicable Field of This Tailor Made Automatic Welding Trolley:

1) To be specifically, this Automatic Welding Trolley serves on carrying out internal circumferential welding for tanks fabrication, which is difficult to be accessed directly by human being, and need to be monitored remotely by means of video camera;
2) Traditionally, the internal circumferential welding inside tanks is fulfilled with Welding Center:
a) A set of LHZ model Column and Boom Welding Manipulator of different horizontal and vertical moving stroke, together with 2 or 3 sets of Welding Rotators Roller Bed;
b) However, the restriction of Welding Center is, when length of tank exceeds 20m, the horizontal boom can not be used for extending into the tank for performing internal circumferential welding, because too much droop down that is hard to eliminate;
3) Strong Points: Under such conditions, the more flexible and compact Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor is more useful, which can freely move into whatever length of tanks. Besides, its position can be managed more precisely, compared with welding head at the front end of horizontal boom in the case of Column and Boom Welding Manipulator;

4. Testing on SAW welding in this Automatic Welding Trolley at Wuxi JACK Workshop:

B. Main Units and Work Principle of Wuxi JACK Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor:

1. Composition of Automatic Welding Trolley:

In December 2025, at Wuxi JACK assembly workshop, this Automatic welding trolley was being assembled and tested: (Fig.1)

As can be seen from the above photo, this motorized moving welding trolley is composed of:
1) Motor drive pedestal, with 4 wheels for guiding its movement and freely turning around;
 

2) Welding Head Mechanism of the Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor,

which is mounted onto the motorized moving pedestal. It has units of:
a) Welding torch. In this case for LUT, it is SAW welding torch;
b) High precision cross slides, with motor drive, high precision linear guiderails along horizontal and vertical direction, for precisely controlling on position of welding torch;
c) Video camera, being assembled onto welding torch, for shooting on welding operation during the entire work period;
d) Laser indicator at front end of welding torch, for detecting on and feeding back position of welding torch, so as to be applicable for operator to control welding torch position in real time;
e) Welding wire feeding unit and straightening mechanism;
f) SAW flux conveying and recycling tube;
g) SAW flux hopper, bright yellow color;

3) Electric Control of the Automatic Welding Trolley,

a) Electric control box, mounted onto the pedestal together with welding head mechanism;
b) Operating table, with: (Fig.2)

i. Graphic Monitor, to display in real time progress of welding operation, which is communicated from video camera;
ii. HMI (Human machine interface) and its touch screen, for operator to control on process parameters of welding operation;
iii. Keyboard and mouse, to key in complicated instructions and parameter for welding. The keyboard and mouse are put onto drawer of operating table;
iv. Moving wheels at its bottom, so that operating table can be changed its position anywhere, depending on different using conditions of this Automatic Welding Trolley;
c) Remote operating pendant, this gives operator another degree of freedom, that he/ she can operate on operation of this Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor at any place away from the operating table;

2. How does Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor Operate:

1) Position: During internal circumferential welding, this Automatic Welding Trolley stays inside tank, and moves forward, for implementing on welding job;
2) Major Motion: Considering stable and manageable operation, this Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor is kept at bottom of the tank, and moves only a little bit. The way of completing on circumferential welding is by means of 0° to 360° rotation of tank, which is led from rotation of Welding Roller Bed. The revolving linear speed is also the controllable circumferential welding speed;

3) Welding Position Control in Automatic Welding Trolley:

a) Detection and Show: The deflection of welding torch away from welding seam is by means of position sensor on welding torch, and displayed in real time with laser indicator;
b) Significance: As critical control point, correct position of welding torch precondition for guaranteeing on stable high level welding operation. Accordingly, there are 2 ways of position deflection correction depending on condition of deflection:
i. Large Deflection Correction: There is electric pushing rod inside pedestal of the Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor, which, under remote control, will be actuated, and in turn push the 2 front wheels to lead Automatic Welding Trolley turning certain angle:
The motor drive moving pedestal of the Automatic Welding Trolley for correcting large deviation: (Fig.3)

ii. Small Deflection Correction: If the welding torch only deflects a little bit from correct welding route, such deflection can be corrected by means of cross slides, which is also managed by means of either remote pendant, or keyboard and HMI touch screen on operating table:
Inching adjustment on welding torch small deflection, with cross slides on its mechanism: (Fig.4)

4) The entire control operation is integrated with electric system. The signal communication and transfer are by means of 4G wireless network.
 

C. Progress of Wuxi JACK Automatic Welding Trolley:

1. Initiation: This project on this Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor was raised up by dean of the Academy of Material Science and Engineering, LUT in September 2025, to Wuxi JACK chief engineer. Both sides discussed on feasibility and concept design;
2. Kick Off: The project was pushed into official design stage in October 2025. Both sides drafted and signed contract and technical agreement, the detailed technical requirement was formalized into written form;
3. Pilot Production: The design and pilot production on this Automatic Welding Carriage Tractor started at Wuxi JACK, from November 2025, tested from December, first remotely and then on site accepted by welding technique lab team of the Academy of Material Science and Engineering LUT in January 2026, they had business travel to Wuxi JAC, and then transported to LUT based in Lanzhou city soon after;
4. Current Status and Prospect: Currently, this specialized Automatic Welding Trolley is utilized at LUT, as teaching tools for professor, master’s degree structure, for their exploring on welding on tanks and other large long cylindrical workpieces, which has broad application prospect in the field of Oil and Gas, Wind Tower, Pipeline Deployment, etc.