SCHUNK - SPB joint modules
Who doesn't know them, the industrial robots that set welding points with their fast and expansive movements or impressively and precisely handle large components with apparent ease - proven thousands of times and state of the art.
In order to bring this form of assisting handling closer to people and their workplaces, for example in assembly, the robot gripper arm must be reduced to a size that allows it to be placed at table height, even between two workplaces.
The miniaturization necessary for this requires new conceptual approaches in the design of the joints. Whereas up to now two rotary modules were always necessary to execute a movement with two degrees of freedom, the SCHUNK company has created a compact module with its innovative system called Powerball, which combines all the necessary movements in a spherical joint. This results in many movement combinations that enable highly flexible and individually adaptable movement sequences and go beyond the movement spectrum of conventional robots.
The designers at Busse Design + Engineering have now given this innovative product an appropriate form. The focus was on emphasizing the articulated sphere as the central structural element and a dynamic and at the same time sympathetic design of the arms, which makes it easy to understand the robot as a natural neighbor at the workplace. Ergonomics is thus understood here from the perspective of environmental sensation. The design thus thematizes the product characteristics of mobility, miniaturization and integration into the work environment in a concrete form that will give the Powerball system from SCHUNK a market position that corresponds to its degree of innovation and, not least, the technical quality to which SCHUNK is accustomed.