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A Danish firm that aims to corner the market for robotic grippers for industrial applications has received £500,000 of funding to expand its range of plug-and-play appendages.
On Robot’s RG2 gripper is designed for “pick and place” applications and can handle various sizes of object and both delicate and heavy things.
Bilge Jacob Christiansen, co-founder of On Robot, said that traditional gripper solutions that use compressed air are “convoluted” and make intensive use of space and energy. The RG2 gripper, he said, is flexible, can be mounted easily and be modified by shopfloor workers without the use of a programmer.
The RG2 can be used with Universal Robots’ cobot arms, is controlled using the Danish firm’s software, and features an integrated control board so there is no need for programming or wiring.
Christiansen said the company is using the funding to extend the gripper range to enable interaction with other collaborative robots in the long term.
Torben Ekvall, chief executive of On Robot, said: “Our objective is to become world leaders in the delivery of grippers for collaborative robots. The product simplifies a complex task by being plug and play, and is also very easy to modify.”
According to Ekvall, the product sold 50 units in its first year after being launched in January 2015, and is aiming for 150 unit sales by the end of this year. He expects a doubling of volume for the product over the next five years.
With 40 worldwide distributors, the company is now looking to expand its team in the American and European markets.
Lars Rønn, partner at investment company the Danish Growth Fund, one of the investors in On Robot, said: “We are tapping into a megatrend in the automation field, where collaborative robots are becoming both cheaper and more simple to programme.
“Robot technology is becoming accessible to a new segment of clients among small firms, and addresses a significantly larger volume than classic industrial applications.”