Motion Control

The new gearheads are ideal for end-of-arm axes for small industrial and collaborative robots and general industrial machinery where weight is a critical factor.

ElectroCraft has expanded its MobilePower product family with the MPW Wheel Drive, which it said is optimized for mobile robots.

Motus Labs, a Dallas-based startup that exited stealth mode in December 2018, today commercially launched its ML1000 series of gear drives. Featuring its patented gearless M-DRIVE design, Motus Labs said the ML1000 series can improve robot performance and reduce costs for both robotics manufacturers and users. The ML1000 series has five precision drive models. Check…

Elmo Motion Control, a manufacturer of innovative motion control technologies, offers a new line of servo drives — the Platinum series of servo drives featuring advanced servo functionality and functional safety. An evolution of Elmo’s Gold line of servo drives, the new line of servo drives is designed to meet OEMs’ growing needs for safer,…

Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Sony Corp. have developed an origami-inspired manipulator, the mini-RCM, which could make robotic surgery more portable.

HayBeeSee has been developing CropHopper, a quadcopter with flexibile legs that it says can gather more data in an energy-efficient way to help farmers manage crops.

We hope you enjoy the August 2020 edition of The Robot Report, which is devoted to motion control. The insert appeared in the August 2020 print issue of Design World, sibling publication to The Robot Report, Collaborative Robotics Trends, and Robotics Business Review. The August 2020 issue includes the following articles: How a CNC machine shop maximizes…

maxon said its GPX UP planetary gear is ideal for applications that demand extreme torque and power output, smooth back-drivability, long life, and high efficiency in a small volume.

The mission includes precision motors from maxon for a robotic arm for handling samples and a novel helicopter.

ATI developed a space-rated force/torque sensor for the Perseverance Rover, which will explore the Martian surface.

A new smart fabric that can be inflated and deflated by temperature-dependent liquid-vapor phase changes could enable a new range of mechanotherapeutic and industrial applications.

Wandelbots, which has developed the TracePen tool for manual training of robot motions, has raised $30 million for its global expansion.

POSITAL FRABA said its new hollow shaft kit encoders incorporate an integrated rotation counter that records every single revolution — without any need for external power supply, maintenance-prone batteries, or complex gears.

Researchers at NC State have developed software that can to enable people using robotic prosthetics or exoskeletons to walk in a safer, more natural manner on different types of terrain.

Rusagro, one of Russia’s largest agricultural companies, is launching an autonomous driving project for harvesters with Cognitive Agro Pilot, which uses a single video camera and AI.

Energy chain systems and polymer plain bearings maker igus has made its robot control software freely available for simulation and programming of a variety of robots. The platform is designed to be easy to use for newcomers to robotics.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have combined limbs that can move up and down with loose wheels for innovative gaits to help propel a NASA rover that could conduct exploration in the sandy hills of the moon or Mars.

NC State University researchers have developed a soft robot inspired by cheetahs that can move faster on solid surfaces or in the water than previous generations of soft robots.

Covariant, which is developing AI for unassisted industrial robotics applications, has raised $40 million.

MoveIt, the Motion Planning Framework for ROS, has been successfully used in numerous industrial and research applications where complex collision-free robot motions are needed to complete manipulation tasks. In recent months, a great deal of effort has gone into migrating MoveIt into ROS2. As a result, the new MoveIt2 framework already provides access to many…

GAM released its new GSL series of strain wave gearboxes. The new gearboxes provide zero-backlash and high torque in a small gearbox for robotic and motion control applications. The GSL gearbox uses harmonic gearing for a very compact design that easily integrates into applications requiring high ratios and high precision in a small form factor.…

The new Robot Control Mate add-on for ABB’s RobotStudio allows users to commission and control SCARA robots directly from their personal computers or laptops.