Organization: igus
Country: Germany
Website: https://www.igus.com
Year Founded: 1964
Number of Employees: 500+
Innovation Class: Technology, Product & Services
For all of the strides made in humanoid locomotion over the past year or so, there are still numerous applications for robotic manipulation to address. igus GmbH offers a finger gripper for its ReBeL collaborative robot arm to help developers.
The company designed ReBeL with its self-lubricating iglide plastics to be low-cost and easy to integrate so that innovators could focus on building the next generation of robots. End-of-arm tooling is already available for tasks such as assembly or inspection through the RBTX.com marketplace.
“As the ReBeL is very light and inexpensive with a weight of around 8 kg [17.6 lb.] and a price starting at $6,899, it is often used in humanoid applications,” said Alexander Mühlens, head of the low-cost automation business unit at igus. “For this reason, we have received several customer requests for a robot hand that can be easily connected to the ReBeL via plug and play.”
igus, whose U.S. headquarters are in Rumford, R.I., added that extensive testing has proved the longevity and flexibility of its hand. The ReBeL finger gripper can be controlled via various interfaces, including USB, TTL (5V) serial, and internal scripting.
The new end effector is compatible with all ReBeL models and is controlled by digital I/O at the tool center point. It can also copy human motion in teleoperation or imitation-learning applications, noted igus.
Mühlens added that the humanoid hand could be useful in university research, food service, and entertainment industry. Small and midsize enterprises, which are already adopting collaborative robots for their ease of programming, can try to automate new tasks with low risk.
Following igus’ policy of openly listing its prices, the ReBeL finger gripper is available for $2,760.
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