2.2011
trends in automation
Festo worldwide/About this magazine
44
–
45
Germany
On 24 August 2011, the German President Christian Wulff paid a visit to
the winners of the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2010 at the home of Festo in
Esslingen, Germany. Together with the top management of Festo AG, the
prize-winners from Festo AG, Dr. Peter Post and Markus Fischer, and from
the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation
(IPA), Andrzej Grzesiak, presented their award-winning research project
and technological developments in a series of lectures and a subsequent
tour of the company.
For the first time in the field of robotics, the Bionic Handling Assistant –
inspired by the elephant’s trunk – enables humans and machines to
cooperate directly in complete safety. As an assistance system for industry
and the home, numerous future applications are feasible. The German
President said: “One objective of the Deutscher Zukunftspreis is to highlight
the scope of Germany’s innovation potential. This is particularly well
illustrated by the implementation of Bionic Learning. I am impressed to
see how nature can provide such fascinating insights for technological
developments: the elephant’s trunk has inspired a gentle robot and the
principles of bird flight will soon be found in new automation processes.”
German President visits Festo
Bionic Handling Assistant and SmartBird live in action
German President Christian Wulff
with the bionic future concept SmartBird from the Festo
Bionic Learning Network.
About this
magazine
The German President
is shown a further
development of the Bionic Handling Assistant.
trends in automation 2.2011
November/December 2011
Publisher
Festo AG & Co. KG
Ruiter Straße 82
D-73734 Esslingen
Project Management
Silke Gartenmeier, Customer Magazine
Phone +49 711 347-3902
gtm@de.festo.com
Responsible for content
Dirk Ebertz,
Head of Marketing Instruments
dbrt@de.festo.com
Ralf Sohn, Head of Direct Marketing
rso@de.festo.com
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