At the Hannover Messe, Schunk will be demonstrating the possibilities and opportunities offered by intelligent gripping system solutions for the smart scenarios of Industry 4.0.

"In the coming years, industrial handling will be reinvented," says Prof. Dr. Markus Glück, Managing Director Research & Development, CINO at Schunk, with conviction. Whereas in the past every single step was laboriously programmed, tomorrow's handling solutions will operate much more independently. "The market is already demanding gripping systems that can be put into operation quickly and intuitively and adapt automatically to varying gripping situations. In addition, collaboration between humans and robots and communication between the components involved in the production process will rapidly gain in importance," emphasizes Glück.

Schunk is not simply throwing proven technologies overboard. On the contrary: the range of the pneumatic flagship PGN-plus-P, for example, will be expanded once again at the Hannover Messe. At the same time, the gripper specialist is stepping up its activities in the mechatronics segment. The challenge of merging electrical control systems with gripping tools leads to mechatronic component networking. Ultimately, the aim is to combine the power requirements of the pneumatic world with the networking options and control landscapes of a smart and collaborative factory in the best possible way.

For the first time in Hanover, Schunk will be presenting a DGUV-certified gripper for collaborative applications that has a gripping force of 450 newtons - far more than was previously possible. The company is thus opening up the collaborative market for handling weights beyond small parts assembly. The automotive supply industry and car manufacturers themselves will certainly take a closer look at this development. In addition, a flexible mechatronic gripper with a large stroke for a wide range of industrial applications will be presented, which is controlled via Profinet.

Networking, machine learning and autonomy
With the help of machine learning, handling solutions should in future be able to recognize regularities based on existing data and algorithms and derive appropriate reactions. With smart gripping, for example, Schunk uses data from several sensors to obtain new information through data correlation and make intelligent decisions. In the medium and long term, the gripping system specialist believes that the trend will be towards autonomous gripping. In conjunction with 2D and 3D cameras, grippers will be able to avoid collisions, they will know how to grip workpieces and develop the optimum gripping strategy together with the higher-level handling system. Ultimately, gripping systems will be able to handle parts independently and refine the underlying algorithms on their own. as

Hall 17, Stand B40