Six research teams from around the world will be developing innovative solutions with the KUKA lightweight robot LBR iiwa between now and Hannover Messe 2016

For the third time now, KUKA is presenting the annual KUKA Innovation Award. The six finalists in this year's competition will be provided with an LBR iiwa together with a flexFellow for half a year in order to implement their ideas.

Innovative robotic applications with the KUKA LBR iiwa

The objective of the competition is to present innovative robotic applications and components related to the topic of flexible manufacturing. In a realistic setting, solutions are to be found for everyday problems facing end users and new key technologies are to be developed and demonstrated. A total of 25 wide-ranging applications were received from around the world. From these, a specialist international jury drew up a shortlist of six finalists.

KU Leuven in Belgium has specialized in flexible manipulation skills for innovative human-robot collaboration. MRK Systeme GmbH in Augsburg will use the LBR iiwa and flexFellow to demonstrate the safe gripping and handling of heavy parts. RTWH Aachen will be demonstrating a dynamic and interactive robotic assistant for innovative applications in the construction sector. Johns Hopkins University is developing an intelligent production assistant for manufacturing with large numbers of variants. A research group from BTU Cottbus is working on a comparable task. The sixth finalist from TU Dresden will be demonstrating innovative methods of interaction between the human operator and the LBR iiwa.

Award ceremony at Hannover Messe 2016

The six finalists now have six months to implement their exciting applications with the KUKA robot hardware. The final is being held at Hannover Messe 2016 in the presence of thousands of experts. The winner will receive the not inconsiderable sum of €20,000.