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Robotics developers have taken a variety of approaches to try to equal human dexterity. Cambridge Consultants today unveiled Hank, a robot with flexible robotic fingers inspired by the human hand. Hank uses a pioneering sensory system embedded in its pneumatic fingers, providing a sophisticated sense of touch and slip. It is intended to emulate the human ability to hold and grip delicate objects using just the right amount of pressure. Cambridge Consultants stated that Hank could have valuable applications in agriculture and warehouse automation, where the ability to pick small, irregular, and delicate items has been a “grand challenge” for those industries. Picking under pressure While warehouse automation has taken great strides in the past decade, today’s robots cannot emulate human dexterity at the point of picking diverse individual items from larger containers, said Cambridge Consultants. E‑commerce giants are under pressure to deliver more quickly and at a cheaper price, but still require human operators for tasks that can be both difficult and tedious. “The logistics industry relies heavily on human labor to perform warehouse picking and packing and has to deal with issues of staff retention and shortages,” said Bruce Ackman, logistics commercial lead at Cambridge Consultants. “Automation of this part of the logistics chain lags behind the large-scale automation seen elsewhere.” By giving a robot additional human-like senses, it can feel and orient its grip around an object, applying just enough force, while being able to adjust or abandon if the object slips. Other robots with articulated arms used in warehouse automation tend to require complex grasping algorithms, costly sensing devices, and vision sensors to accurately position the end effector (fingers) and grasp an object. | Speakers | Exhibitors | Register Hank uses sensors for a soft touch Hank uses soft robotic fingers controlled by airflows that […]