‘Ikea bot’ gets touch sensitivity upgrade

Dynamis, the software technology that underpins the capabilities, was developed by Eureka Robotics, a spin-out from NTU Singapore. The force feedback enabled by Dynamis allows industrial robots to handle tiny lenses and electrical components with similar dexterity to human hands.

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“Today, Dynamis has made it easy for anyone to programme touch-sensitive tasks that are usually done by humans, such as assembly, fine manipulation, polishing or sanding,” said Associate Professor Pham Quang Cuong, co-founder of Eureka Robotics and the deputy director of the Robotics Research Centre at NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

“These tasks all share a common characteristic: the ability to maintain consistent contact with a surface. If our human hands are deprived of our touch sensitivity, such as when wearing a thick glove, we would find it very hard to put tiny Lego blocks together, much less assemble the tiny components of a car engine or of a camera used in our mobile phones.”