The Festo Bionic Elephant's Trunk, AirPenguin, AirJellies, and Other Robots Modeled from Nature Are Featured at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington D.C.
Festo representatives will host hands-on demonstrations, April 16-17, and will give a presentation on April 14 during the X-Stem Symposium on bionics. (Festo Booth 1823)
A 21st century menagerie of robots all based on life found in nature is the centerpiece of the Festo educational effort at the USA Science & Engineering Festival, April 14-17 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C. (Festo Booth 1823)
Festo Didactic, the companys education division, offers students direct access to industrial knowledge and technologies. These learning systems place students in real-life situations and enable them to quickly gain practical experience of high tech components used in factory and process automation. The Festo Bionic Learning Network - an interdisciplinary consortium of universities, institutes, and development companies - amazes the world with swimming, crawling, and flying robots based on living things and natural systems.
On Thursday, April 14, from 1:10 to 2:15, the Festo Bionic Team with Andrea Ziomek, Corporate Communications Manager for Festo Americas, will demonstrate the adaptive gripper, based on a fish fin; the AirPenguin, which swims through the air much as a penguin swims through the sea; the AirJelly, which floats in the air jellyfish style; and the delicate flittering flight of the eMotion butterflies. A video of the FlexShape Gripper, which captures and holds objects using the same principle as a lizards tongue, will be shown. Repeat demonstrations will be staged on Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. in room 147 and at 1:30 p.m. on the Kids Stage.
Festo will showcase the Bionic Handling Assistant, a flexible robotic arm based on the structure of an elephants trunk, on Saturday and Sunday at Booth 1823 e. Also on display will be the adaptive gripper, used to gently pick up delicate and odd shaped items, and the AquaJellies, autonomous bionic jelly fish swimming in their new 500 gallon tank. An interactive demonstration includes build your own gripper paper models. Representatives from Festo Didactic will be available to showcase training tools that simulate systems found in industry.
"Everyone from Festo going to the festival is excited about it," said Frank Langro, Director of Marketing and Product Management at Festo. "It is heartwarming to see the excitement of the students and to answer their amazing questions. And, we will be interacting with future innovators."
About Festo
Festo is a leading manufacturer of pneumatic and electromechanical systems, components, and controls for process and industrial automation. For more than 40 years, Festo Corporation has continuously elevated the state of manufacturing with innovations and optimized motion control solutions that deliver higher performing, more profitable automated manufacturing and processing equipment.
Featured Product
3D Vision: Ensenso B now also available as a mono version!
This compact 3D camera series combines a very short working distance, a large field of view and a high depth of field - perfect for bin picking applications. With its ability to capture multiple objects over a large area, it can help robots empty containers more efficiently. Now available from IDS Imaging Development Systems. In the color version of the Ensenso B, the stereo system is equipped with two RGB image sensors. This saves additional sensors and reduces installation space and hardware costs. Now, you can also choose your model to be equipped with two 5 MP mono sensors, achieving impressively high spatial precision. With enhanced sharpness and accuracy, you can tackle applications where absolute precision is essential. The great strength of the Ensenso B lies in the very precise detection of objects at close range. It offers a wide field of view and an impressively high depth of field. This means that the area in which an object is in focus is unusually large. At a distance of 30 centimetres between the camera and the object, the Z-accuracy is approx. 0.1 millimetres. The maximum working distance is 2 meters. This 3D camera series complies with protection class IP65/67 and is ideal for use in industrial environments.
