Ocado, a British online grocery store, recently collaborated with the SoMa Project to develop a robot.
With the help of the SoMa Project, which for those of you who don’t know is a robotics project funded by the European Union, Ocado was able to develop a robotic arm built to automate the grocery process.
Mainly, this includes being able to pick up fruits and vegetables of all shapes and sizes, tasks that require a delicate touch.
For this reason, the team went with a gripper called the RBO Hand 2 which relies on pressurized air and rubber.
Its ability to adjust its grip ultimately helps keep the fruits and vegetables intact, eliminating the chance of bruising.
By connecting the RBO Hand 2 to two different robot arms, the Staubli RX 160L and the KUKA LBR iiwa14, the robot arms were able to easily pick up fake fruits and veggies in their first real tests.
