Whether grasping, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing – in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. The human hand is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more logical than equipping robots in collaborative working spaces with a gripper that is modelled on this natural model and can learn through artificial intelligence to solve a wide variety of gripping and turning tasks? BionicSoftHand uses the method of reinforcement learning – learning by strengthening. This means that instead of having to imitate a concrete action, the hand is merely given a goal.

As the division between manual production work performed by humans and automated work handled by robots and other equipment becomes less concrete, an array of new tools is coming to market to facilitate this burgeoning flexibility. Within the past year, we've reported on the introduction of the Mate exoskeleton--a wearable robotic technology designed to assist human shoulder movement in production operations, and FT-Produktion's use of the RG2 double gripper to provide a single robot arm with two "hands" for parts feeding. Now, we've learned that Festo has developed a Bionic SoftHand and Bionic SoftArm--pneumatic robot technologies designed to extend human capabilities into the automation realm. According to Festo, the fingers of the BionicSoftHand "consist of flexible bellows structures with air chambers. The bellows are enclosed in the fingers by a special 3D textile coat knitted from high-strength elastic threads. This makes it light, flexible, adaptable and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces."

Whether it's grabbing, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing -- in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. In that regard, the human hand, with its unique combination of power, dexterity and fine motor skills, is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more natural than equipping robots in collaborative workspaces with a gripper that is modelled after this model of nature, that solves various tasks by learning through artificial intelligence? Festo will be showing off the pneumatic robot hand BionicSoftHand at Hanover Fair 2019. Combined with the BionicSoftArm, a pneumatic lightweight robot, these Future Concepts are suitable for human-robot collaboration.

Whether it's grabbing, holding or turning, touching, typing or pressing -- in everyday life, we use our hands as a matter of course for the most diverse tasks. In that regard, the human hand, with its unique combination of power, dexterity, and fine motor skills, is a true miracle tool of nature. What could be more natural than equipping robots in collaborative workspaces with a gripper that is modeled after this example from nature and solves various tasks by learning with artificial intelligence? Festo's Bionic series does just that. Festo announced that it will show its BionicSoftHand pneumatic robot hand at Hannover Messe 2019.