Grasp Robotics, a Pennsylvania-based company developing artificial muscles for both robotic and prosthetic applications, has joined the Innovation Partnership program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The Grasp Robotics’ artificial muscle is designed to more closely mimic human strength and dexterity. It does so by increasing the strength of the actuator fourfold compared to competitors, all while maintaining the speed, size, and weight of human muscle.
“My initial research was focused on humanoid robotics,” says Revanth Damerla, co-founder and CEO of Grasp Robotics. “However, during this process I discovered that prosthetic hands were rejected anywhere from 20-50 percent of the time by potential users due to their lack of strength.”
Grasp Robotics was created out of Damerla’s doctoral research and innovation in the University of Michigan’s Precision Systems Design Lab in Mechanical Engineering.
The team has received funding support from the NSF I-Corps program and the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization for Life Sciences Innovation Hub, as well as mentorship services from the Innovation Partnerships mentor-in-residence program.
“We often think of innovation as providing a solution, but it’s actually more about finding the right problem,” says Shorya Awtar, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Precision Systems Design Laboratory at U-M. “Revanth spent a significant amount of time interacting with prosthetics researchers across the university, interviewing industry personnel, and reading through numerous articles to identify a pressing yet unmet need.
“The ability to identify a need, no matter how simple or basic it might appear, is a credit to both innovators like Revanth and the U-M innovation ecosystem as a whole.”
As Grasp Robotics continues to work on bringing its actuator to market in the prosthetics space, it also is continuing to look for other sectors in which their technology could be of benefit.
“While market research helped connect us to our current market, we are hopeful that we will be able to expand our market to support the continued advancement of humanoid robotics and exoskeletons,” says Peter Scott, co-founder and COO of Grasp Robotics.
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