Robots and the Future of Robotic Grippers
Overview
The transition from manual labor to highly sophisticated robots is ongoing and gaining momentum every day. Robot grippers, with their growing complexity, flexibility, and adaptability, are at the forefront of this transition. To fully comprehend the ramifications and prepare for a future integrated heavily with robotic grippers, it is important to understand their current usage and future potentials. This information guide explores the current state and the future of robotic grippers, discussing utilization rates in various industries, projected market growth, and changes and advancements in robotic grip technology.
Robotic Grippers Today
The use of robot grippers, also known as end effectors, has soared in recent years, especially in industries such as warehousing, manufacturing, and healthcare. According to reports, the global market for robotic grippers was approximately $931 million in 2020, a trend largely driven by the need to automate tedious and repetitive tasks and improve accuracy and efficiency in various industrial operations. Beyond their industrial application, robotic grippers can also be seen in domestic settings, where they assist in tasks such as cleaning, cooking, or moving objects. In medicine, specialized grippers are used in non-invasive surgeries to minimize the possibility of human error.
The Future of Robot Grippers
As the need for automation continues to increase, the future for robotic grippers looks promising. The gripper market size is anticipated to reach around $2.1 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 12.7% from 2020 to 2027, according to a report by Allied Market Research. Revolutionary changes in grip technologies would enable robots to sense pressure, temperature, and texture, thus becoming more human-like in performance. These advancements in technology could pave the way for enhanced collaboration between humans and robots in various areas work, where the robots can do the physical work while humans provide supervision.
Key Takeaways
- The global market for robotic grippers was approximately $931 million in 2020, driven largely by increased automation in diverse industries.
- Robotic gripper market size is forecasted to reach around $2.1 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of nearly 12.7%.
- Advance in gripping technologies are expected to make robots more humanlike and enhances their capability to perform sophisticated tasks.
- The future of robotic grippers might see enhanced collaboration between humans and robots where each can focus on what they do best: the robots perform the physical work while humans provide supervision.
3Laws Robotics – Enhancing the Utilization of Robotic Systems
To fully amplify the utilization of these emerging applications of robotic grippers, a robust safety system that can simplify the certification process is necessary. Here, 3Laws Robotics comes into the fray. The company is developing innovative software that aims to enhance safety and reliability for robotic systems.
Their software, 3Laws Supervisor, built on Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), a technology developed at Caltech, provides mathematically provable safety, thereby potentially making the certification process less strenuous. This path-breaking approach has seen multiple use cases across diverse industries.
For instance, in warehouse automation, 3Laws helped an autonomous forklift customer achieve a 40% efficiency gain, leading to a payback period of just six months. In dynamic and unpredictable environments, 3Laws’s reactive collision avoidance capabilities enable robots to navigate effectively.
3Laws also minimizes the downtime caused by unnecessary e-stops or collisions and thus enhances operational efficiency. Its adaptive software works with a wide range of platforms including mobile robots, cars, drones, and manipulators, and is compatible with popular robotics middleware such as ROS and ROS2.
3Laws Robotics is shaping up to be a next-generation safety solution that transcends traditional safety methods, proffers a proactive approach to safety, and enables robots to operate closer to their peak capabilities while maintaining safety.