New high-sensitivity grippers (food logistics)

Especially for the handling of fruits and vegetables it often needs very delicate grippers. This is simply because there are no clear and recurring shapes. As robotics increasingly makes its way into the food sector, the market potential is large. In addition to harvesting automation (indoor farming, robotic harvesting), retailers are likely to be customers. The discounter Aldi only recently announced its entry into online retailing. Two young companies from countries not immediately looked to are offering solutions or are close to doing so. The German company Wegard GmbH is pursuing a different, already proven approach with its soft grippers.

The Human Touch Robotics from Finland

The name is bulky with "The Human Touch Robotics", but promising. The gripper is supposed to be inexpensive despite its extreme adaptability to the object. The video below implies that in addition to food, medications can also be handled in the best possible way. Specifically, items of different types, sizes, shapes, stiffness and weights can be gripped. The gripping solution can handle objects ranging from soft fruits and vegetables, herbs, easily squeezable and fragile to stiff objects.

MABI from Poland is also already far

At this point, the Polish startup MAB Robotics was already presented with its very long and very light robot arm, ideal for picking fruit, for example. Now, a new gripper has been developed together with master students. The gripper uses a BLDC motor with the MD80 motor controller, which enables control of the gripping force and effector position - without additional sensors. In addition, the gripper is 3D printed and there is a handy software for easy control of the system.

German solution with flexible fingers

Very variable, i.e. individually configurable (number, clamping width, etc.) are the flexible "Gumme fingers" of the Hamburg Wegard GmbH. As can be seen in the video, they also fit the particularly fast Delta robots and not only cobots/industrial robots. These cost roughly between €1,500 and €2,500.

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The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He advises SMEs around robotics - up to 50% funding for consulting is possible. Permanently looking for interesting solutions, he has seen hundreds of applications. For this reason, his customers also include large companies that have know-how but do not know the entire market. You can find more about him here.