Bosch Rexroth has won the coveted Hermès Award at Hannover Messe 2023 for its Smart Flex Effector.
The Hermès Award
The Hermès Award is an international technology prize awarded annually at the Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology. The award is named after the Greek god Hermes, who was known as the messenger of the gods and the patron of invention and commerce.
The Hermes Award was first presented in 2000 and is open to companies and research institutions from around the world that exhibit at the Hannover Messe. The award recognizes innovative products or solutions that are characterized by their technological novelty, their potential for practical application, and their economic significance.
The award is presented by a panel of independent experts who evaluate the entries based on their level of innovation, their technical quality, and their potential for commercial success. The winner is announced at the opening ceremony of the Hannover Messe and receives a prize of €100,000.
Over the years, the Hermes Award has become one of the most prestigious technology prizes in the world, attracting entries from leading companies and research institutions from around the globe. The award has helped to showcase some of the most innovative technologies and products in the fields of automation, robotics, energy, and digitalization.
Bosch Rexroth won the prize in 2021 for their CtrlX Automation platform, which offers a modular and open system for industrial automation and control.
The Hermes Award has played a significant role in promoting innovation and technological advancement in the industrial sector. The award not only recognizes the achievements of leading companies and research institutions but also helps to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange between different industries and countries.
The Smart Flex Effector
The Smart Flex is a is a sensor-based compensation module placed between a robot and a gripper to provide flexibility. It senses the workpiece and adapts the robot’s grip to suit objects as fragile as glass, as small as Legos, or as heavy as 13 pounds.
It is the closest thing to a human hand any industrial automation system has yet created.
The result is an ability to automate processes that could not be automated before now. While the module can be programmed, it can also be manually adjusted, so it does not require programming ability from its users.
Rexroth has always been known for its balance of precision and power, and the Smart Flex Actuator is the next step in the process. With six degrees of freedom and adaptability to Cartesian systems or robots, the Smart Flex Effector can be retrofitted to existing machinery.