A milestone for robotics

Sensodrive GmbH is one of the winners of this year's Bavarian Innovation Award. On October 14, 2024, the company was awarded one of the main prizes by Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger for its revolutionary SensoJoint robotics drive modules. The prestigious award is given every two years by the Bavarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Association of Bavarian Chambers of Crafts and the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy.

The first torque sensor available for industry, the world's first complete robotics drive with integrated torque measurement and control, the first AI-optimized cobot from the 3D printer - innovations have been part of the history of Sensodrive GmbH since it was spun off from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2003. The robotics specialist has now been honored for its SensoJoints - ready-to-install complete drives with which Sensodrive is currently revolutionizing the development of cobots and medical robots.

With these complete drives, every company can develop technically leading cobots and medical robots in the shortest possible time. SensoJoints reduce both the costs and the effort for development and certification of the drives to a minimum and enable valuable competitive advantages.
SensoJoints - game changer for the development of cobots and medical robots.

For safe human-robot collaboration (HRC) or human-robot interaction (HRI), cobots and medical robots must offer the highest level of sensitivity and safety functions. In particular, the development of the drives and their safety certification has so far been extremely time-consuming and costly. Robotics manufacturers have had to develop their own drive solutions from numerous individual components, test them until they are ready for market and have them certified according to a large number of safety standards. A universally applicable complete drive for cobots and medical robots has not yet existed.

With its SensoJoints, Sensodrive GmbH now offers the world's first universal complete drive in which all drive components are combined in a ready-to-install component - optimally coordinated with one another and with market-leading technology.
Market-leading torque technology

The heart of the SensoJoints are the patented torque sensors from Sensodrive. Their reliably high measurement accuracy makes them the technically leading torque sensors on the market, which always offer highly precise performance even under the influence of interference factors. The Sensodrive torque sensors laid the foundation for human-robot collaboration (HRC) in 2003 and are still market leaders.
Maximum safety

The SIL3/PLe-compliant SensoJoints offer the highest level of safety thanks to their leading sensor technology and precise control technology. They are expected to be certified according to all important international industrial and medical safety standards from the fourth quarter of 2024 - e.g. ISO 13849, IEC 62061, IEC 61508, DIN ISO/TS 15066 and ISO60601-1.

The integrated safety functions include:

• STO - Safe Torque Off
• SBC - Safe Brake Control
• SBT - Safe Brake Test
• SS1 - Safe Stop 1
• SS2 - Safe Stop 2
• SOS - Safe Operating Stop
• SP - Safe Position
• SLP - Safely Limited Position
• SV - Safe Velocity
• SLS - Safely Limited Speed
• ST - Safe Torque
• SLT - Safely Limited Torque
• Unique control technology

The integrated Sensodrive Advanced Control algorithms guarantee the highest precision in movement execution. With output-side torque control, integrated, active vibration damping and high-precision speed control, they ensure maximum sensitivity during operation and absolutely reliable position control without any after-vibration.

Tailor-made for a wide range of applications

The complete drives are available in 5 standard sizes and can also be individually tailored to the respective requirements if required.

Unique competitive advantages for manufacturers of cobots and medical robots

With SensoJoint complete drives, every company can now develop technically leading cobots and medical robots in the shortest possible time, according to Sensodrive's promise. SensoJoints reduce both the costs and the effort for development/certification to a minimum and enable unique competitive advantages. "Anyone who uses our SensoJoint complete drives now only needs a few months to develop cobots and medical robots instead of several years," explains Managing Director Norbert Sporer. "This means robotics manufacturers can halve their time to market and save millions in development and certification costs."