![]() Software decides the best way to stack pieces of the upper, then lights up portions of a glass table, showing its human partner where to set things down. They’re also designed to work with flesh-and-bone human employees. ![]() The Grabit machines in shoe factories look more like oversized panini presses than electronic humanoids. Prahlad spun Grabit out of SRI 2013, and the company raised about $25 million from investors that include the electronics maker Flex, and Esquel, a garment manufacturer, and Samsung.Īlso read: Why rubbing a balloon on your hair makes it stick: Static electricity decoded He spent some time building wall-climbing robots before deciding that the real opportunity was in manufacturing and logistics. Harsha Prahlad, who founded the company and now serves as its chief technology and products officer, holds about three-dozen patents related to electroadhesion. The concept for Grabit was hatched at SRI, a prominent nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, California. “The things we’re getting pulled into, we’re getting pulled into because they can’t be done another way,” he said. This makes Grabit able to do things robot-hand companies are unlikely ever to conquer, says Greg Miller, Grabit’s chief executive officer. Instead, the company implements flat pads of electrodes that, when charged correctly, create an electric field that adheres to nearly any surface. Despite its name, Grabit’s innovation isn’t based on having robots mimic the human-style grabbing motion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |