Shadow Robot receives helping hand from CDE
With a steel-like grip but with a tender touch, the Shadow Robot Company’s remote-controlled hand is fascinating military and commercial users who see its potential for use in dangerous, hazardless or dirty situations. In fact anywhere where strength and dexterity can have an effect...
And if anyone is any doubt about MOD’s commitment to broaden their traditional supplier base and encourage innovation from those who previously perceived the market difficult to penetrate, the company’s story may prove persuasive. Shadow Robot knew that they had a product with potential benefits for use for defence and anywhere else where remote strength and dexterity could have an effect, but despite initial interest found it difficult to penetrate the market.
Shadow Robot Company Managing Director, Rich Walker knew it would be hard to find a way in: “From the outside, MOD is a wall that is hard to climb. We had indications that our product could be useful against hostile objects, but we were finding it difficult to make the right contacts.”
“All that changed when we met a representative from the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) at a conference a couple of years ago. He encouraged us to put in a proposal and about two weeks later I had a phone call on my way home asking for a few more details...” That call led to a £250,000 CDE contract and they have now developed a hand with electric motors that is smaller and more rugged than their original technology.
The CDE contract was followed by an intense period of development including introductions to universities and other contacts to refine the technology and test applications. “To us CDE has been a ‘golden customer’ – a customer with a problem, with money to solve the problem and with the ability to work with you and a willingness to share enough information about their requirements to enable development.”
Speedy decisions
Walker found the CDE application process not only speedy but also relatively easy to complete. “You can go to them with an idea and discuss if it is good enough to put in as a proposal. All you need to do is state clearly what are the benefits to defence along with some additional information and they pass it to the right person... One of the nice things for us was that even though the process is fairly short, you can submit an even shorter document and for us that was one sheet of paper!”
For Walker this compared favourably with other applications for funding that the company had been involved in: “We knew with CDE that if a proposal is good enough, it will receive funding and it will not be a case of 25 people putting in proposals and there only being enough funding for five.”
Walker recently showcased Shadow Robot at CDE where he was able to discuss the technology with Lord Drayson: “It was great to talk with MOD personnel and show them the ideas that are in the pipeline, and I particularly valued the chance to get serving EOD staff to try the system and give me their thoughts. Watching the excitement on the face of a peer of the realm as he got the chance to play with the Shadow Hand made all the hardwork worthwhile!” Find out more about the Shadow Robot Company and CDE in a short film available on www.science.mod.uk
Shadow Dextrous Hand
The Shadow Dextrous Hand has 24 movements, covering all the movements of the human hand. Internal sensing lets it know where it is and how hard it’s working, allowing it to handle delicate objects like fruits and eggs, or grip hard to operate tools.
It weighs less than 4kg, and can be easily fitted on a remote vehicle. Control is performed remotely by a CyberGlove, manufactured by American company CyberGlove Systems, that reads the movement of the human hand.