Robot-robot interaction can be tricky to get right. But, at last week's Automatica, we met some guys who made it look easy. Here's what we found at the Kastanienbaum booth.
Last month we were blogging live from Automatica 2016. During it, we saw some great demos where our Robotiq products were being used for really interesting applications. We were so busy last week that we didn't have time to tell you about a few of the amazing booths we visited. So, let's have a look at a couple of the places that our Robotiq 2-Finger Gripper turned up in the trade fair.
We've already told you about our meetings with the Robotiq 3-Finger Gripper during Automatica. Well, our 2-Finger Gripper was also pretty popular. We caught up with it first in the booth of Kastanienbaum.
Robot-robot interaction can be quite complex sometimes, but the guys at Kastanienbaum made it look easy. They had set up a great demo where a 2-Fingered Gripper interacted with a Schunk gripper for an automobile assembly task. The Robotiq Gripper was mounted on a UR robot and the Schunk on a larger KUKA. Here's a video.
Kastanienbaum is a spin-off company from the Robotics and Mechatronics Center in DLR, the German Aerospace Center. Their goal is to make human-robot coexistence a reality. They do this by bringing software solutions to market which use unique programming concepts. They have even spawned a spin-off of their own, KBee AG, who manufactures the FRANKA robot.
Kastanienbaum won the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award back in March this year for their project "POINT: The tool for risk analysis and cost effectiveness of HRC workplaces and the generation of safe motions for robot assistants."
Their booth at Automatica 2016 was showcasing a new project - K:OS. This software system is aimed at safe and efficient human-robot interaction.
However, they weren't the only DLR graduates making an interesting use of the 2-Finger Gripper. DLR themselves had a demo which used it in a very unique way. They had mounted the Gripper inside an airbag!
Yes, it is odd.. but it wasn't the silliest thing we saw at Automatica 2016.