Schunk receives the 2024 Hermes Award at Hannover Messe

Hannover Messe organizers Deutsche Messe presented the 2024 Hermes Award to German company Schunk at the ceremonial opening of the event on April 21, 2024. Schunk received this recognition for an innovative AI-based project.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Germany’s Minister of Education and Research, presented the award in the presence of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

A  jury chaired by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, selected Schunk’s 2D Grasping Kit project for this year’s award. This application kit reportedly comprises a camera with lens, an industrial PC, AI software and an application-specific gripper. The innovative nature of the project lies in the generic, AI-based modelling of component variants and the transfer to a smaller training data set, which cuts learning times for recognition. Even under changing light, colour or background conditions, the intuitive user interface reportedly enables reliable picking and handling of randomly arranged and non-positioned parts from an infeed conveyor belt, tray or preparation table. This allows repetitive sorting or logistics tasks to be automated with little outlay, explains a Hannover Messe press statement.

“Automation is the key to the future for supplying people and industry in our country. Only with sustainable innovations, especially in the spheres of production and logistics, can we successfully master the economic and social challenges of tomorrow,” says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Hanselka. “Besides ease of use, the robustness of the development for many of the upcoming automation solutions was a particularly decisive factor behind our decision to select the 2D Grasping Kit for this award. On behalf of the entire jury, I am delighted to congratulate Schunk on winning the Hermes Award 2024!”

Deutsche Messe has honoured a company with the Hermes Award at each edition of Hannover Messe for over 20 years. This international industry prize reportedly acknowledges a product or solution that demonstrates a notably high level of technological innovation.