28.06.2010 Balancity – a city in balance – is the general topic for the German Pavilion at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. The most important component of the exhibition will be the “Energy Source”. Resource and energy efficiency – for now and the future – is also a key topic for Festo. With the aid of biomechatronics, Festo aims to detect new technologies and make its products even more intelligent and efficient. The Pavilion sections “Factory” and “Depot” will feature innovations created by German companies. Festo will be exhibiting its AquaPenguin and BionicTripod. With the aid of bionic principles, these energy-efficient Future Concepts provide an impetus for tomorrow’s green manufacturing methods. In the “Depot”, exhibits are displayed in a kind of store room or trading area for goods. The “Factory” is a room which is constantly in motion. Visitors are conveyed along moving walkways and can pass through interactive scanner stations, where they can access information in the form of films.

With innovative technical materials and through the imaginative combination of design and functional principles, new opportunities for creativity can be opened up and made available for automation technology. Flexibility, lightweight design and energy efficiency are becoming increasingly important in automation. By means of highly diverse examples, nature shows how maximum performance can be achieved with a minimum of energy expenditure.
The Bionic Learning Network reflects Festo's competence in providing solutions for investigating new approaches to sustainable product development. "We intend to be the innovation leaders of our industry. To this end, we must constantly venture down new, entirely different avenues," said Dr. Eberhard Veit, Chairman of the Management Board and Director of Technology and Market Positioning at Festo AG. "Nature finds ideal solutions to many problems. By transferring such knowledge and its application to biomechatronics, we set out to make our products even more efficient and intelligent."

The bionic penguins readily demonstrate what is meant by learning from nature.

An entirely new feature in robotics is the torso that can move in any direction. To make such an “organic” change of shape possible, the head, neck and tail segments were based on a new 3D structure with Fin Ray Effect®. The fins of a fish provide the biological model: if they are touched with a finger, they adapt to its contours and attempt to close around it. A three-dimensional structure modelled on the fish's fin provides not only the artificial penguins with the necessary impulse for further accomplishments.

What Festo impressively demonstrates with its AquaPenguins can be specifically implemented in the handling of materials. The FinGripper can reliably grasp highly diverse objects – just like the human hand. It represents the future of grasping technology: the FinGripper's three fingers fit flexibly and elastically around the object to be held; various workpieces or even agricultural products can be securely handled by this means, without the need to constantly change the gripping tool.

The BionicTripod is also based on the 3D structure with Fin Ray Effect®. By means of its three arms arranged in a pyramid configuration, the BionicTripod can position a gripping device, for example within a large working space. It is extremely light, highly flexible and easy to produce. "We achieve weight savings of up to 90 percent," explains Markus Fischer, Head of Corporate Design at Festo. This directly influences energy consumption, since less mass requires to be moved: bionics are now paving the way for energy efficiency.

This also has interesting implications for control technology - such as the collective behaviour of autonomously controlled systems, as demonstrated by the technology-bearer AquaPenguin. They are designed as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that independently orient themselves and navigate through the water basin and develop differentiated, variable behaviour patterns in group operation. The robotic penguins can manoeuvre in cramped spatial conditions, turn on the spot when necessary and – unlike their biological archetypes – even swim backwards. The manoeuvres are supported by an intelligent 3D sensor system. To analyse their surroundings, the penguins are fitted with special 3D sonar which makes use of broadband ultrasound signals, similar to those used by dolphins and bats.

These and many more insights, such as the phenomenon of swarming among animals in nature, are used by Festo's researchers and designers in adapting this technology; they are considering how to derive inspiration from nature to shape tomorrow's working environment and production facilities.

Contact:

Dr. Heinrich Frontzek
Phone:  ++49 (0) 711-347-1873  
 Fax:  ++49 (0) 711-34754-1873   
E-Mail:  DRHF@DE.FESTO.COM
www.festo.com