OnRobot’s Nasa technology-based ‘Gecko’ gripper named finalist in the 2019 Edison Awards

OnRobot, a global leader in end-of-arm tooling for collaborative robots, announced today its Gecko Gripper has been named a finalist in the Applied Technology’s Robotics category in the 2019 Edison Awards.

The Edison Awards, named after Thomas Alva Edison, recognizes and honors the world’s best in innovators and innovations. The Awards will announce gold, silver and bronze award winners at the Edison Awards Gala held Thursday, April 4, 2019, in New York City.

OnRobot provides hardware and software that is used with collaborative robots – or cobots – from a variety of robot manufacturers, such as Universal Robots, Kuka, Fanuc and Yaskawa. Recently, OnRobot announced general availability of its Gecko Gripper. 

Using millions of micro-scaled fibrillar stalks that adhere to a surface with powerful van der Waals forces, the Gecko Gripper is modeled after the way that geckos climb.

Its technology initiated as a research project at Stanford University and moved on to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab, where the design was used for salvaging and repairing satellites such as solar panels, given the Gecko Gripper’s unique ability to operate in a vacuum.

Today, the Gecko Gripper lets robot arms pick up flat, smooth objects with significant energy savings over vacuum grippers, which require compressed air that is costly, power-intensive, and bulky.

All award nominations were reviewed by the Edison Awards Steering Committee and the final ballot sent to an independent judging panel.

The judging panel was comprised of more than 3,000 professionals from the fields of product development, design, engineering, science, marketing and education, including professional organizations representing a wide variety of industries and disciplines.