EU Roboticists vote for KUKA lightweight robot
04 May 2011
At the European Robotics Forum held in Västerås, Sweden, 340 robotic specialists were presented with the finalists of the 2011 euRobotics Technology Transfer Award, now in its eighth year. The judges awarded the first prize to the Lightweight Robot (LWR) developed by KUKA and DLR to imitate a human arm’s dexterity, sensing and strength.
Described as being ideal for tasks that require close human-robot interaction, the LWR is more portable and energy-saving than robots with comparable payloads, making it particularly suitable for mobile robot applications.
Second prize went to 3B Scientific’s SIMone, an extraordinary, interactive robotic birth simulator, developed by TU München, ETH Zurich and 3B Scientific. SIMone aims to reduce the number of caesarean sections and incidence of cerebral palsy as a result of incorrect use of forceps and vacuum extraction. At the core of SIMone is a force controlled kinematic structure, which is actuated to rotate the baby realistically as it moves through the birth canal with position and force sensors to record forces and torques applied by the forceps or vacuum tool.
The other finalists in the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award were: Fits.me, an Estonian start-up company which has, jointly with Tallinn University, developed an on-line fitting room for clothing retailers using robotic mannequins, Surgenius, a surgical robot developed by Surgica Robotica and the University of Verona and Workerbot, a human inspired , dual armed robot, created by a collaboration between pi4_robotics and Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology, IPK.
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