New NTU built robotic arm can emulate human hand actions and visual acuity of eyes

Eureka Robotics, a technology start-up from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) has created a new robot that can pick up delicate optical lenses and mirrors with care and precision, just the way humans do.

The robot was named "Archimedes" which was developed by the same NTU team behind the "IKEA Bot" in 2018. The newly designed robot can slot lenses and mirrors of different sizes into a custom loading tray, to get them ready for coating.

This built-in-NTU technology is believed to be useful in the optical production industry, such as cameras, medical imaging and eyewear, as it eliminates defects in production and improves productivity.

It should be mentioned that Archimedes has a six-axis robotic arm, controlled by algorithms that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to move. It also ensures how much force is required to execute in its grip to create a system that can mimic the abilities of human fingers and the visual acuity of human eyes.

Assoc Prof Pham from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering said, "Its accuracy of placing objects is within a tenth of a millimetre, yet it does so with the gentleness of human touch, made possible by our control algorithms."

NTU Associate Professor and the founder of Eureka Robotics, Pham Quang Cuong will unveil Archimedes at the leading trade event in Southeast Asia for Industry 4.0, Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2019.

Supported by Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), this technology was first a lab idea and now it is going to the commercial market that shows how technological translations taking place at the NTU Smart Campus.

In a news release, NTU stated that the technology powering Archimedes is protected by a technology disclosure filed through NTUitive, which is NTU's innovation and enterprise company that is incubating Eureka Robotics and it's team of six researchers on the NTU Smart Campus.

In addition, CEO of NTUitive Dr Lim Jui mentioned that this NTU built robot is capable of doing "laborious and repetitive tasks, so humans can be freed up to do more creative and meaningful work. Companies can then improve productivity, efficiency, work safety, manufacturing outputs while optimising labour."

However, it should be noted that Eureka Robotics will be delivering this brand new Archimedes to a US laser optics manufacturer, after which it will look into adapting the platform for other types of manufacturing processes, such as drilling and tapping of custom machinery.