Festo_BionicMotionRobot_en

BionicMotionRobot Pneumatic lightweight robot with natural movement patterns Natural role models An elephant’s trunk and octopus tentacles have a special feature in common: due to their slender kinematics, they can master a variety of flexible movement patterns. Soft and supple or powerful and energetic – depending on the required action, they can bend freely and stiffen as much as needed. The technical implementation This behaviour can be imitated very well using pneumatic drive units and corresponding valve and control technology. The bellows on the BionicMotionRobot are also covered with a special 3D textile knitted fabric, which reveals another amazing analogy with nature in terms of its function. Just like the muscle fibres in an octopus’s tentacle, its filaments are oriented so that they allow the bellows structures to expand in the required direction of movement and at the same time limit this in the other directions. It is only thanks to this new fibre technology that the power potential of the whole kinematics can be exploited. The industrial benefit The adjustable rigidity achieved by this enables direct contact between man and machine. In the event of a collision, the system no longer poses a danger and does not have to be shielded from the worker like a conventional factory robot. In this way, the system is able to relieve people from monotonous, strenuous or even dangerous motion sequences and improve ergonomics at the workplace of the future. 4 Festo AG & Co. KG 5 BionicMotionRobot: Pneumatic lightweight robot with natural movement patterns