Hermes Award winner announced at Hannover Messe 2017
24 Apr 2017
This year’s Hermes Award at the annual Hannover Messe show has been won by German firm Schunk for its barrier-free human-robot collaboration tool, the JL1 co-act gripper.
The trophy was presented at the event’s opening ceremony attended by government representatives and leading international industry figures.
Awards jury head Dr Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) explained why the winner had beaten rivals AGS-Verfahrenstechnik GmbH (Stade, Germany), Augumenta (Oulu, Finland), Linz Center of Mechatronics (Linz, Austria) and Noonee AG (Zurich, Switzerland).
He said: “Safe and barrier-free human-robot collaboration in Industry 4.0 manufacturing operations with small production runs, high component diversity and frequent retooling, is only possible if every part of the manufacturing system is intelligent, right down to the end effector level. Schunk’s JL1 is a perfect example of a state-of-the-art, smart end effector, which is why the jury has chosen it as this year’s winning entry.”
The JL1 is an intelligent modular gripping system capable of directly interacting and communicating with its human operator. Its integrated sensor systems continually track the proximity of humans, triggering evasive action to avoid any direct human-machine contact.
The module jaws are able to measure gripping force and have tactile sensors, so their operation is highly adaptive and responsive. Its sensor constellation also includes two cameras that enable the gripper to see its surroundings in 3D and help it to detect workpieces.
For more information on Hannover Messe 2017 see here.
