{"id":578867,"date":"2024-04-26T13:37:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T17:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.therobotreport.com\/?p=578867"},"modified":"2024-04-26T13:38:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T17:38:12","slug":"ubiros-gentle-grippers-go-all-electric-for-reliability-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therobotreport.com\/ubiros-gentle-grippers-go-all-electric-for-reliability-flexibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Ubiros Gentle grippers go all electric for reliability, flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ubiros

The Gentle Duo Mini soft grippers are suitable for food handling. Source: Ubiros<\/p><\/div>\n

Reliable and delicate robotic grasping has long been a challenge, but Ubiros Inc. said it can solve the problem without the bulky pneumatics or complex coding of previous approaches.<\/p>\n

The company<\/a>\u2019s electrically driven and modular grippers are easier to deploy and use than other soft grippers, according to Onder Ondemir, president of Ubiros. He is also a professor in the engineering department at Northeastern University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ubiros offers<\/a> the Gentle Flex Module and Gentle Flex CC for users that want to build their own grippers. The spinout of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI<\/a>) also offers Gentle Duo with two soft fingers and Gentle Pro with four fingers, as well as Touch models for both that include force control, part sensing\/confirmation, and a low-power mode.<\/p>\n

The Natick, Mass.-based company said its compliant grippers are suitable for food handling and packaging, textiles, and some warehouse applications. Ubiros, which is a resident startup at MassRobotics<\/a>, already has distributor agreements in China, South Korea, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Founder fascinated by technology<\/h2>\n

\u201cI loved Knight Rider <\/em>as a kid and asked my mom, \u2018Who makes [smart car] KITT? What do I need to become to make something like that?\u2019\u201d recalled Ondemir. \u201cShe said \u2018mechanical engineer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up and became an industrial engineer, but I\u2019ve always been fascinated with mechanical systems,\u201d he told The Robot Report<\/em><\/a>. \u201cI worked at an insurance company modeling the capacity of systems and demand forecasts, and I became a vice president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ondemir later ran into a friend [Cagdas Onal] who was doing post-doctoral associate work at MIT and collaborating with Harvard University researchers working on soft robotics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew the limitations of pneumatics \u2013 precision is low, control is hard, and the equipment needed to generate compressed air uses a lot of electricity,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter spending years in the lab, one day, he came to me and said, \u2018Onder, I think I have groundbreaking technology for packaging and gripping in general, but I don\u2019t want to run the company.\u2019 Becoming the CEO was a no-brainer to fulfill my desire to build machines and work with my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ubiros

Ubiros President Onder Ondemir at MassRobotics. Source: Ubiros<\/p><\/div>\n

The genesis of Ubiros<\/h2>\n

Ubiros has largely focused on food<\/a> handling.<\/p>\n

Automating the handling of fruit and baked goods is not easy, because such delicate food items are easily damaged, Ondemir noted. Rigid grippers typically don\u2019t have sufficient sensitivity, and many other companies are trying to solve problems such as object detection and singulation, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn farming<\/a>, crops are being left to rot in the field, which is a huge waste,\u201d added Ondemir. \u201cA key barrier to getting automation is handling food with a soft touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the real problem we\u2019re solving is the worker shortage,\u201d he said. \u201cHarvesting and packing jobs aren\u2019t interesting to people, and there are the issues of efficiency for the employer \u2013 most people work one shift \u2013 and also injuries and finally the cost of food.\u201d<\/p>\n