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PHD adds gripper options, transition plate to product line

PHD adds gripper options, transition plate to product line

PneuConnect with GRT gripper on a UR cobot. Source: PHD

PHD Inc. this month added three products to its line of grippers and accessories for industrial automation. They are intended to help robots grip large objects, make positioning and programming easy for maximum efficiency, and facilitate machine tending. PHD’s products are designed to work with collaborative robot arms, or cobots, from Universal Robots A/S.

Fort Wayne, In.-based PHD said it sells grippers, linear slides, and the widest range of long-life, robust actuators in the industry. It also offers engineering software and Internet-based tools to save design time, support from factory-trained application and industry specialists, and rapid product delivery.

PHD adds jaw-travel option to GRR line

The company has added a 300mm (11.81 in.) jaw-travel model of its Series GRR high-capacity pneumatic grippers. These parallel grippers are designed to provide high grip force, five long-jaw travels, and high loads.

Because the Guardian grippers can withstand high impact and shock loads, they are suitable for applications such as small engine block manufacturing, automotive wheel-rim manufacturing, and foundry applications, said PHD.

Also available is the Series EGRR high-capacity electric parallel grippers, which offer many of the same benefits as the pneumatic design.

Pneu-Connect X2 with dual grippers available

PHD also announced the release of Pneu-Connext X2 kits with dual grippers. They can be mounted to UR cobots for maximum efficiency in automation performance.

The Pneu-Connect X2 includes PHD’s Freedrive feature, which interfaces with UR cobots for easy positioning and programming. The kits come in the following standard combinations:

Contact PHD for other gripper combinations.

The Pneu-Connect® X2 includes the following features, said PHD:

  • Five popular PHD pneumatic gripper options for a wide variety of applications
  • Two grippers for maximum automation efficiency
  • Series GRH Grippers now offer analog sensors providing jaw position feedback throughout jaw travel
  • The Freedrive feature that interfaces with the UR for easy positioning and programming
  • Seamless, cost-effective, end-effector integration
  • Incorporated MAC valves and control board
  • Common jaw mounting for application specific tooling
  • Updated URCap software included for intuitive, easy setup
  • Ease of use

Download the Pneu-Connect catalog for more information.

Transition plates connect UR directly to linear actuator

PHD’s transition plate allows a Universal Robot arm to be directly attached to the new PHD Series ESU electric belt-driven linear actuator. The company said it offers a transition plate for each size of UR arm, “taking machine tending to a whole new level.”

PHD transition plate

This transition plate provides a seventh axis for UR arms with the ESU linear actuator. Source: PHD

With a cataloged stroke of up to 5500mm (216.53 in.), users can increase the working area of a UR10 arm by 10 times.

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Hank robot from Cambridge Consultants offers sensitive grip to industrial challenges

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.

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Hank uses sensors for a soft touch

Hank uses soft robotic fingers controlled by airflows that can flex the finger and apply force. The fingers are controlled individually in response to the touch sensors. This means that the end effector does not require millimeter-accurate positioning to grasp an object. Like human fingers, they close until they “feel” the object, said Cambridge Consultants.

With the ability to locate an object, adjust overall system position and then to grasp that object, Hank can apply increased force if a slip is detected and generate instant awareness of a mishandled pick if the object is dropped.

Cambridge Consultants claimed that Hank moves a step beyond legacy approaches to this challenge, which tend to rely on pinchers and suction appendages to grasp items, limiting the number and type of objects they can pick and pack.

“Hank’s world-leading sensory system is a game changer for the logistics industry, making actions such as robotic bin picking and end-to-end automated order fulfillment possible,” said Ackman. “Adding a sense of touch and slip, generated by a single, low-cost sensor, means that Hank’s fingers could bring new efficiencies to giant distribution centers.”

Molded from silicone, Hank’s fingers are hollow and its novel sensors are embedded during molding, with an air chamber running up the center. The finger surface is flexible, food-safe, and cleanable. As a low-cost consumable, the fingers can simply be replaced if they become damaged or worn.

With offices in Cambridge in the U.K.; Boston, Mass.; and Singapore, Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business and technology consulting services for clients worldwide. It is part of Altran, a global leader in engineering and research and development services. For more than 35 years, Altran has provided design expertise in the automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial, and electronics sectors, among others.

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Festo’s Bionic robots merge pneumatics, artificial intelligence

Festo's Bionic pneumatic robotics meet artificial intelligence

Bionic SoftHand from Festo plays Rock-Paper-Scissors. Credit: Philipp Freudigmann

Whether it’s grabbing, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing — in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. In that regard, the human hand, with its unique combination of power, dexterity, and fine motor skills, is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more natural than equipping robots in collaborative workspaces with a gripper that is modeled after this example from nature and solves various tasks by learning with artificial intelligence? Festo’s Bionic series does just that.

Festo announced that it will show its BionicSoftHand pneumatic robot hand at Hannover Messe 2019. Combined with the BionicSoftArm, a pneumatic lightweight robot, these future concepts are suitable for human-robot collaboration.

The BionicSoftHand is pneumatically operated so that it can interact safely and directly with people. Unlike the human hand, the BionicSoftHand has no bones. Its fingers consist of flexible bellows structures with air chambers.

The bellows are enclosed in the fingers by a special 3D textile coat knitted from both, elastic, and high-strength threads. Thanks to this soft robotics material, it is possible to determine exactly where the structure expands and generates power and where it is prevented from expanding. This makes it light, flexible, adaptable, and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces.

AI-guided Bionic grasping

The methods for machines to learn are comparable with those of humans. They require positive or negative feedback to their actions in order to classify and learn from them. BionicSoftHand uses this method of reinforcement learning.

This means instead of imitating a specific action, the hand is merely given a goal. It uses trial and error to achieve its goal. Based on received feedback, the Bionic gripper gradually optimizes its actions until the task is finally solved.

Specifically, the BionicSoftHand can rotate a 12-sided cube so that a previously defined side ends up on top. The necessary movement strategy is taught in a virtual environment with the aid of a digital twin, which is created with the help of data from a depth-sensing camera and computer vision algorithms.

Proportional piezo valves for precise control

To minimize the effects of tubing, Festo’s developers have specially designed a small, digitally controlled valve terminal, which is mounted directly on the BionicSoftHand. This means that the tubes for controlling the gripper fingers do not have to be pulled through the entire robot arm.

Thus, the BionicSoftHand can be quickly and easily connected and operated with only one tube each for supply air and exhaust air. With the proportional piezo valves used, the movements of the fingers can be precisely controlled.

The days of strict separation between factory workers and automation are passing, thanks to collaborative robots. As their workspaces converge, humans and machines will be able to work simultaneously on the same workpiece or component — without having to be shielded from each other for safety reasons.

The BionicSoftArm is a compact further development of Festo’s BionicMotionRobot, whose range of applications has been significantly expanded. Thanks to its modular design, the Bionic arm can be combined with up to seven pneumatic bellows segments and rotary drives. This guarantees maximum flexibility in terms of reach and mobility. The arm can work around obstacles even in the tightest of spaces if necessary.

At the same time, it is completely flexible and can work safely with people. Direct human-robot collaboration is possible with the BionicSoftArm, as well as its use in classic SCARA applications, such as pick-and-place tasks.

Flexible application possibilities

The modular robot arm can be used for a wide variety of applications, depending on the design and mounted gripper. Thanks to its flexible kinematics, the BionicSoftArm can interact directly and safely with humans.

At the same time, the kinematics make it easier for the Bionic arm to adapt to different tasks at various locations in production environments. The elimination of costly safety devices such as cages and light barriers shortens conversion times and thus enables flexible use – completely in accordance with adaptive and economical production.

BionicFinWave: Underwater robot with unique fin drive

Nature teaches us impressively, how optimal drive systems for certain swimming movements should look. To move forward, the marine planarian and sepia create a continuous wave with their fins, which advances along their entire length.

For the BionicFinWave, the bionics team was inspired by this undulating fin movement. The undulation pushes the water backwards, creating a forward thrust. This principle allows the BionicFinWave to maneuver forwards or backwards through an acrylic tube system.

The BionicFinWave’s two side fins are completely cast out of silicone and do not require struts or other supporting elements. The two fins are attached to the left and right of nine small lever arms, which in turn are powered by two servo motors. Two adjacent crankshafts transmit the force to the levers so that the two fins can be moved individually to generate different shaft patterns. They are particularly suitable for slow and precise locomotion and whirl up less water than, for example, a screw drive.

A cardan joint is located between each lever segment to ensure that the Bionic robot’s crankshafts are flexible. For this purpose, the crankshafts including the joints and the connecting rod are made of plastic in one piece using the 3D printing process.

Intelligent interaction of a wide variety of components

The remaining elements in the BionicFinWave’s body are also 3D-printed, which enables its complex geometries in the first place. With their cavities, they act as flotation units.

At the same time, the entire control and regulation technology are watertight, safely installed and synchronized in a very tight space. The Festo Bionic Learning Network has continued its innovative approach to robotics.

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