A collaboration between two robotics companies shows the technology’s potential to shape how hazardous materials will be handled safely in the future.
As a recent television commercial from the British telecommunications company EE demonstrated, the world of remotely operated robotics is constantly evolving. But beyond the thrilling stunts, a key goal is to apply this technology to manufacturing and industrial settings to get people out of hazardous or hazardous work situations.
Now, thanks to a recent virtual reality (VR) experiment between Extend Robotics and Shadow Robot, achieving that goal is one step closer.
This robotics partnership took place within the framework of the Value of Joint Experimentation in Digital Technologies for Manufacturing and Construction (VOJEXT) project.
VOJEXT is a Horizon 2020 project that strives to provide a new generation of user-friendly frameworks for collaborative robotics for the needs of manufacturing and construction industries.
Extend Robotics has developed software solutions to make it easier for users to control robotic hardware remotely using accessible and affordable consumer VR technology like Oculus and SteamVR.
Shadow Robot has been developing agile robotics for about 25 years, most recently with a focus on teleoperation. The company builds next-generation robot hands and systems with advanced dexterity to help solve difficult problems and provide meaningful purpose for robotics.
Ethan Fowler, TeleOp technical lead at Shadow Robot, explained the reason for their involvement in this partnership: distance, being able to tell how far away things are and getting the robot hand to reach that position is extremely difficult.
“Extend Robotics has done a lot of work to improve these technologies – their volumetric streaming is something that looks extremely promising.”
The two robotics companies believe their combined technology could have a big impact on the manufacturing and construction industries, particularly in industries where there is a need to handle hazardous materials such as spent nuclear fuel rods, where a degree high precision dexterity is crucial.
Dr. Chang Liu, Founder and CEO of Extend Robotics, said, “This partnership will take the remote robotic operations industry to the next level.
