I found a very cool sensor the other day.  I have been working on a crane application at work off and on for a while.  We have many large cranes with bulky end effects for moving glass and sash panels to and from the production lines.  In the past the cumbersome size of them kept them being used on only the largest and heaviest loads.  So I deigned a very small end effecter and utilized a servo controlled zero gravity crane that follows your hand movement.  The only problem was that the overhead bridge remained heavy and still took effort to accelerate and move.  So I have been trying to find a way to automate its movement without requiring direct operator controls.  So the new sensor I found outputs an analog signal based on its current angular position.  My plan is to take this signal from the crane assemblies angle and format it to drive motors to keep the bridge positioned above the operator without requiring them to push any buttons.  This will mean that if the operator pushes the glass lightly in a direction the crane should automatically drive in that direction until they stop pushing.  It has been an exciting breakthrough for me (albeit geeky), but since it is unproven ground in the controls world I will let you know how it goes.  Luckily I have some talented programmers and panel builders as coworkers so it might just work. 

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