CONTROL & AUTOMATION
THE FUTURE OF AUTOMATION
CAMBRIDGE CONSULTANTS
Hank:The smart flexible gripper
The Covid-19 outbreak has brought into
sharp focus how much we depend on
seamless logistics for much of our daily
lives – just think about toilet paper for
example! And those supply chains that are
under increasing strain are a perfect storm
of heightened demand coinciding with a
reduced workforce due to self-isolation and
general social distancing measures.
Against this backdrop, the need for
collaborative automation to augment the
human labour force is greater than ever.
Even before the onset of Covid19, things
were starting to change in the world of
robotics in warehouse automation, and
when the current crisis is dealt with, I
expect that trend to continue. Most of the
easily automated tasks have already been
automated, the remaining ones need more
intelligence and flexibility to be integrated
into the robotics before they’ll succeed.
One of the secrets of robotics – most
robots are actually pretty dumb. It’s only
in the last few years, as they’ve been
combined with tech like machine vision
and artificial intelligence, that they’ve
been able to access a whole new set of
semi-structured tasks, where the objects
they’re handling, or the effects they need
to achieve, vary from time to time. One
particularly hot area is reverse logistics –
handling goods that have been returned
to the shop or manufacturer. This is tricky
Hank uses soft robotic
fingers controlled by
airflows that can flex the
finger and apply force.
because the items are all slightly different,
so really hard to automate. But with the
right sensors and algorithms, this is the sort
of thing that can be done now.
We’ve been working on a smart flexible
gripper called Hank. Hank uses a
pioneering sensory system embedded in its
pneumatic fingers, providing a sophisticated
sense of touch and slip, meaning it can
emulate the human ability to hold and grip
delicate objects using just the right amount
of pressure, minimising any damage to the
object.
While warehouse automation has taken
great strides over the last decade, today’s
robots cannot emulate human dexterity at
the point of picking diverse individual items
from larger containers. By giving a robot
additional human-like senses it can feel and
orient its grip around an object, applying
just enough force, while being able to
adjust or abandon if the object slips. This
allows you to address the challenge of
handling individual items, however much
they vary in size and shape.
Hank uses soft robotic fingers controlled
by airflows that can flex the finger and
apply force. The fingers are controlled
individually in response to the touch
sensors. This means that the end effector
does not require millimeter-accurate
positioning to grasp an object. Like human
fingers, they close until they ‘feel’ the
object. With the ability to locate an object,
adjust its position and then grasp that
object, Hank can apply increased force
if a slip is detected and generate instant
awareness of a mishandled pick if the
object is dropped.
It’s an exciting time in automation and,
contrary to what you might hear, most
companies developing automation
solutions are doing so because they
can’t recruit enough people to do the
work, not because they want to eliminate
human workers. Robots work best as a
force multiplier – allowing you to do more
with your existing workforce – giving the
repetitive, dangerous or dirty jobs to the
robots, and leaving the tasks which require
the most flexibility and intelligence to
people. Think of the goal as making an
Ironman suit, not a Terminator.
For further information, please visit www.cambridgeconsultants.com/home
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PECM Issue 44