PowerON: Update of the "super sensitive".

This week the Robotics Festival takes place for the second time. The festival had its premiere last year. One of the highlights was the first presentation of Agile Robots and PowerON. Time for an update, because a lot has happened at PowerON in the meantime. For this reason, I asked the founders to write a few lines for the readers of the blog. Thankfully they did so.

Tactile surfaces enable robots to take on demanding tasks

The German-New Zealand startup PowerON aims to change the way robots interact with us. PowerON is developing products that will enable robots to interact with us intelligently and safely in the near future. Using flexible tactile surfaces, robots will be able to perform some of the most demanding tasks that previously could only be done by us humans, including handling delicate objects such as glass, harvesting strawberries, or interacting with other humans. The goal is to relieve humanity of many manual, energy-consuming, monotonous and dangerous tasks in the future.

Robots that help in the household

Robots that load and unload the dishwasher, hang out the laundry or help care for relatives are something we've only seen in movies so far. The PowerON Group wants to make a significant contribution to realizing these visions. To do this, robots need to act more like humans and be able to safely perceive their surroundings. The human arm, for example, serves the entrepreneurs as a bionic model for a robotic gripper, because in the future such grippers will have to be more sensitive, more pliable and thus more natural. PowerON is developing the necessary flexible electronic components for this purpose, with the aim of breaking down the barriers between humans and machines and enabling close, safe cooperation.

Dielectric elastomers - The all-round technology

To this end, the team is relying on so-called dielectric elastomers. In contrast to established forms of mechanical power transmission via cable pulls, hydraulic components or electric motors, artificial neurons, stretchable flexible sensor skins or artificial muscles are controlled in fine doses directly in the compliant material by means of electrical impulses. The components consist only of silicone and carbon, are inexpensive and can be easily printed in large quantities and in any shape using known manufacturing processes. This results in almost inexhaustible application possibilities.

The first application - industrial robot with a sure touch

In close consultation with industry partners, the startup first focused on developing stretchable and compliant sensor technology that will give robots a sense of touch. The first product is a flexible skin that gives robotic grippers a sense of touch. This determines whether and how objects are grasped, as well as preventing slippage, twisting and damage. This process can be controlled with pinpoint accuracy. Artificial intelligence will additionally enable object recognition in the future.

In conjunction with the mechanical compliance of the materials used, processes can thus be automated that were previously only feasible manually. These include the handling of rubber or textile products, or the use of robots in fruit harvesting. In initial tests, fragile objects such as eggs could already be gripped safely and non-destructively.

The integration was carried out in close coordination with the Zimmer Group, one of the world's largest manufacturers of robotic grippers. Beyond classic industrial applications, this is also the first step towards artificially imitating the reflexes of the human hand.

It also becomes clear that the sensor skins are easily scalable in size. It is therefore possible to use them as large-area input interfaces for cobots, for example.

Feeling is just the beginning - actuator technology and the path to compliant systems

But this is just the beginning. PowerON's vision goes far beyond sensor technology. Rather, the actual objective is to create completely compliant robot structures. An integral part of this are the so-called artificial muscles. These are also based on dielectric elastomers. The first demonstrators already give an idea of their future potential. Later, such artificial muscles will be used to drive bio-inspired grippers, bionic prostheses or even printed drug pumps.

To demonstrate that these ideas do not only exist on paper, a demonstration system was developed last year that shows the potential of a combination of sensors, actuators and signal processing. The gripper system is completely compliant and is driven exclusively by artificial muscles, has a tactile skin and the artificial muscles are controlled by artificial neurons. It is precisely this combination that should enable a completely new generation of robot systems in the future.

Limitless Potential - Sponsored by Intel

There are virtually no limits to the possibilities of the technology and thus of PowerON. Not only the founders and existing investors are convinced of this, but also the world's largest chip manufacturer Intel. Intel selected the young startup as one of 10 companies (out of more than 200 applicants) for its coveted Intel Ignite startup program. There, the team had the opportunity to participate in selected workshops on all important topics in the field of startups for 12 weeks and experienced intensive mentoring by Intel. Even after the end of the program, Intel mentors continue to support PowerON with advice and support. The startup and the major corporation are already planning further collaborations.

International from the first day

But what is the story and who are the people behind it all? During a research stay of today's CEO Dr. Markus Henke at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the founding team got to know each other. Together with Dr. Katie Wilson and then mentor Prof. Iain Anderson, as well as experienced business consultant Dr. Ross Green, they founded PowerON Ltd. in Auckland in July 2019. An Exist start-up grant additionally enabled the founding of PowerON GmbH in Dresden in August 2020. Today, the German-New Zealand PowerON Group together employs more than 15 people.

Hardware is hard

After an oversubscribed financing round in summer 2021, the team is currently preparing the next one for this fall. The capital is to be used to bring the sensor array for robotic grippers called "TouchDetect" to product maturity and to launch it on the market with existing and new industry partners. To this end, PowerON will also be represented at this year's HighTech Venture Days in Dresden from October 11 to 12, 2022.
Those who would like to additionally get an idea of the technology used in operational environments can visit the company at the Robotics Festival in Leipzig from September 12 to 14. PowerON is open to contacts with robot and gripper manufacturers as well as system integrators in order to jointly develop new use cases in robotic gripping.

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The author of this blog is significantly involved in the AI/robotics project Opdra. He consults around robotics. More about him can be found here.