Serbian Companies and Faculties Make Most Modern Touch-Sensor Robotic Hand

HTEC Group and Sigmoid have successfully realized the project of the development of the most modern robotic hand with touch-sensors in cooperation with the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad and the Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Nis. This project was financed by the Innovation Fund of the Republic of Serbia through the program of cooperation of science and economy, the companies say in a joint press release.

The robotic hand is designed to be just as movable and flexible as a human hand, with sophisticated catching characteristics, and it is meant for use in automated warehouses and industrial production, as well as for a wide range of applications in repetitive and human-hazardous activities.

– What makes this robotic hand different from similar products in the market is its sensitivity, adaptability and reliability in catching and handling objects of the widest variety of shapes, sizes and weights – from something as fragile as an egg, to bulky, hard objects of up to seven kilograms – without dropping, breaking, or crushing them – the announcement says.

The companies point out that this is currently one of the most affordable robotic hands of this kind of complexity and characteristics, which makes this product very attractive in the global market.

It is also said that the idea was realized into a finished product in under two years from the launching of the project in 2019, with limited financial funds at that.

There is a huge need for such a product in the world market, especially in large warehouses where companies such as Amazon have been searching for a long time now for a technology that would automate the process of sorting and packing products, especially sensitive products such as fruit and vegetables.

– We invested a lot of time and effort in understanding every known type of a human squeeze and the logic behind something so seemingly simple as the human hand motor control. The control of the movements of the human hand had to be a fully automated and self-aware activity, with the help of sensors and complicated communications protocols. When research and development are done in an entirely green field of innovations, where radically new ideas are tested, the biggest challenge is usually how to find the available necessary materials and parts or their making and fitting, which was all successfully realized and we now have a complete product which will upgrade a wide variety of work activities and processes – stated Darko Todorovic, Director of Engineering at HTEC and Head of the Robotics Research Group at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Nis.

The idea for the project came from professor Dr Mirko Rakovic, an associate professor of Robotics at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad and a co-owner of Sigmoid, an experienced researcher and expert in robotics, with a vision toward solving the issue of picking up and putting down objects with the help of flexible sensor hands.

The consortium of the two companies is currently negotiating with several world companies which are interested in testing the robotic hand in their warehouses and industrial facilities, following which the hand will be ready for industrial production.

The next step is the founding of a startup which will take over the intellectual property and the patent of the product in order to collect investments for the further development of the hand and its serial production. If they get to that stage, HTEC Group and Sigmoid hope that the facility and the technology of the production of the robotic hand will remain in our country.

HTEC High Tech Engineering Center d.o.o. Beograd

SIGMOID d.o.o. Novi Sad

Fakultet tehničkih nauka Univerziteta u Novom Sadu

Elektronski fakultet Niš

Fond za inovacionu delatnost Beograd

HTEC Group

Sigmoid

Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad

Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Niš

Innovation Fund

Mirko Raković

Darko Todorović

robotic hand with touch sensors