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The Rise of the Smart Gripper

What next for the all-important, business end of every robot…the gripper?

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Advances in technology, the rise of the cobot, human-robot safety concerns, and questing after the “Smart Factory” are having profound effects on gripper tech
for both manufacturing and logistics.

Advanced chips, 3D vision, haptics, new materials and designs, predictive data analytics, machine learning, edge computing, and miniaturization are headed towards robot grippers in a big way.

Soft Grippers: Food Industry’s New Friend
Eliminating pathogens, people, and wages from the $8.7T global food industry
Part 1 of a 2-part series
Grippers: Robots Aren’t Much Without Them
Who are the gripper-meisters? What are they mastering now…and why?

Grippers as brainiacs!
Amazingly, every industrial robot at birth is totally incapable of doing any work whatsoever. They can raise and lower and twist their arms through their many axes; they can look brutish or elegant or remarkably innovative, but that’s it. They are unfit for work. They are incomplete.

The Gripper Chronicles
Research Shows Need for Smart Grippers to Skyrocket
Need for smart grippers is announcing itself as end users employ cobots in an ever-expanding diversity of jobs.

The Gripper Chronicles
Gripper Titan, Robotiq, Debuts New Products and New Plans for Growth
Robotiq gears up for major market expansion with two, brand-new vacuum grippers, and a first-ever sanding kit; following a trio of adaptive grippers introduced last year…plus $23 million in VC investments!

The Gripper Chronicles
Building Robot Grippers for ‘General Manipulation’
SHOWCASE: Robotic Materials, Inc. develops robotic grippers with built-in 3D perception, tactile sensing, and computation.

The Gripper Chronicles
Got a Bright Idea for a New GM Gripper?
Enter the GM Gripper Challenge. Your bright idea could lead to fame & fortune

The Gripper Chronicles
Gripper Tech Evolves…again!
The business end of industrial robot arms is in yet another growth spurt

 

“Japan will emerge as the fastest-growing market for robotic end-of-arm tools (EOATs), as a majority of the industrial units in Japan invest in automation and integration of robotic technology into their production frameworks.”

The Gripper Chronicles
AUTOMATICA 2018: Cobots and Grippers Rule!
How important are “smart” grippers to Industry 4.0?

The Gripper Chronicles
Touch Blind: The Quest for Grippers That Feel
Australian haptics developer endows robot grippers with the ability to feel, which might lead from factories to logistics to prosthetics to connecting with dementia patients
Part 2 of a 2-part series
Gripper Disruption: Topping Off a Robot’s Arm
Will grippers become the brainy aristocrats in factories and warehouses that run the show?

“Grippers have increased the versatility of robotic arms exponentially. There is seemingly no end to what an effector or gripper can do. From pressure-sensitive handling and assembly to 3D-vision-based detection and recognition systems, end effectors can be equipped with practically any needed device.”— Mike Bacidore, editor in chief of Control Design

The Gripper Chronicles
Grippers Chasing Cobots to Fame & Fortune
With cobot marketplace forecast at $9.2B by 2025, every cobot will demand a “skillful” gripper.

The Gripper Chronicles
Gripper Sales Double by 2023; Asia Accounts for 67%
OnRobot: “With the dawn of smarter, more adaptive tooling, robots can now function with greater speed, strength, safety and precision, accomplishing a wide range of tasks, helping manufacturers maximize ROI.”

“The Gripper Chronicles” Turns One
All-Out Collaboration: Any Cobot, Any Tool, Any Job
As The Gripper Chronicles turns one, we chat with OnRobot’s Enrico Krog Iversen about being the “everything” gripper/EOAT supplier for every cobot brand. Is it possible…and is it necessary?