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Breakthrough innovation specialist Cambridge Consultants has developed 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, meaning it can emulate the human ability to hold and grip delicate objects using just the right amount of pressure. Hank could have valuable applications in agriculture and warehouse automation, where the ability to pick small, irregular and delicate items has been one of the industry’s “grand challenges”.
While warehouse automation has taken great strides over the last decade, today’s robots cannot emulate human dexterity at the point of picking diverse individual items from larger containers. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 realistically pick and pack.
Bruce Ackman, Logistics Commercial Lead, commented: “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. Automation of this part of the logistics chain lags behind the large-scale automation seen elsewhere. 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 fulfilment possible. 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.
Notes to editors
About Cambridge Consultants and Capgemini
About Cambridge Consultants
As the deep tech powerhouse of Capgemini, Cambridge Consultants (CC), is a global team of 800 bright, talented people. We are united by the ambition to turn brilliant ideas into technologies, products and services that have never been seen before. And which will transform business, society and the planet. Deep tech is a mindset; a bold strategy that harnesses radical science and engineering to achieve things no-one else can. It enables our clients to gain unassailable commercial advantage from defendable technology that they own. We are trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands and most ambitious start-ups to realise their critical technology-based aspirations – and we’ve been doing it for 60 years. Cambridge Consultants is part of Capgemini Invent.
About Capgemini
Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organisations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society. It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end-to-end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fueled by its market leading capabilities in AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem. The Group reported 2023 global revenues of €22.5 billion
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