4th Annual SCHUNK ExpertDays on Service Robotics

On February 23 and 24, 2011 experts from all over the world met at the 4th annual ExpertDays on Service Robotics, hosted by SCHUNK. The symposium for applied service robotics primarily focused on market development and efficiency.

This event made clear that standardized platforms and components can contribute to economic and highly developed solutions. This applies for light-weight arms, flexibly applicable grippers, mobile platforms, or control units. System integrators, which are specialized for individual fields of application will soon close the gap between manufacturer and user.

Semi-autonomous service robots are now being seen as the product of the future. The so-called "Click-Worker" may be organized like a call center. If needed, they can connect to the robot, solve the problem and release the robot into its autonomy again. A concept of Dr. Markus Waibel from the Federal Technical University in Zurich went a step further. He searched for a central knowledge store, in which countless data, models, applications and programs are stored, which can be independently called off by the robot itself. The idea is simple, the connected robots, developers and system integrators can use a common pool of knowledge, with successful solution strategies, and put self-developed strategies into the system.

SCHUNK is a pioneer for modular robotics and has promoted the development of service robots from the very beginning. With its industry-proven, mechatronic modules and skillful, polynominal grippers SCHUNK offers a unique modular system for various applications in service robotics. It includes the LWA-4, a modular lightweight arm with the most compact performance on the international market. SCHUNK pushes the development of this new technology forward, with  cooperation's with hundreds of universities, research institutions, and highly specialized industrial companies.

More information on the event can be found at www.expertdays.schunk.com. The next event will take place on February 29 to March 1, 2012.