Eva – Development of the first low cost, light weight, plug and play tabletop robotic arm

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It has been four decades since industrial robots first began to transform assembly lines inEurope, Japan, and the U.S. Yet despite the advent of automation and advances in robotic,90% of all manufacturing task that could be automated are still done manually (BCG; 2015 -The Robotics Revolution)The reasons for this are simple: economics and capabilities. Even today it is still lessexpensive to use manual labour than it is to own, operate, and maintain a robotics system,given the tasks that robots can perform. This leads to lower productivity, lower efficiency andlower wages.We will address this with the development of Eva - a lightweight, low cost, collaborativerobotic arm and innovative ‘teach-by-example’ programming software. Made of high- strengthplastic and controlled by an easy to use app, Eva will be 400% lighter (3.5kg) than other smallrobotic arms and 500% cheaper, making is possible to automate lower value manufacturingand lab tasks not currently possible. Our ‘teach by example’ software will make tasking,training and redeployment, simple and done in under 3 hours with no training required.We have proved the concept in the lab with a 3D printed arm however significant design anddevelopment work is required to create a pre-production prototype capable of prolongedindustrial use. This includes improving the robustness of the polymer skeleton and mechanics,designing a new onboard electronics control system, improving the software, developing newarm attachments and extensive technical validation of the prototype made through soft-toolingprior to mass-production.All current robotic arm solution are metallic, expensive, and heavy and designed for precisionindustrial use not required for several tasks. As a light weight, low cost solution, Eva has thepotential to revolutionise the robotics industry - enabling the automation of menial, labourintensive, low costs tasks – potentially saving £16,653pa in human labour costs perinstallation.