SensoJoint articulated drives from Sensodrive received their safety certification from TÜV in March 2025. The ready-to-install complete drives are therefore the world's first and only torque-controlled robot drives with safety certifications and can be used universally in almost any robotics solution. According to Sensodrive, SensoJoints now enables any company to develop market-ready cobots and medical robots that fulfil all requirements with the highest safety integrity level SIL3/PLe within just a few months.
Competitive advantages for manufacturers of cobots and medical robots.
Until now, manufacturers have had to develop and certify their drives themselves - at great expense and in a very time-consuming process. According to Sensodrive Managing Director Norbert Sporer, those who integrate the ready-to-install SensoJoint drives into their assistance robots instead save themselves all this effort and secure unique competitive advantages. "We make it possible for our customers to develop cobots and medical robots in less than 5 months, implement ISO 10218 and ISO/TS 15066 up to 4 times faster and halve the time-to-market. This saves on development and certification costs in the 7-digit range," says Sporer.
The DLR's AI assistance robot: an impressive example
In co-operation with the DLR, Sensodrive has already proven in practice that these competitive advantages are not just empty promises.
With the help of SensoJoints, DLR researchers were able to turn a research prototype into a product-capable, mobile assistance robot in record time to support people with limited mobility when carrying out various tasks.
The DLR robot is based on an electric wheelchair, enhanced with a sensitive robotic arm and an AI-supported control system. The robot supports people with limited mobility, helping them to drink or handing them objects, for example. The user controls the wheelchair and robotic arm using a joystick, but only has to indicate an approximate direction using the most basic joystick commands - the AI recognises the intention and automatically adapts all of the system's movements.
This semi-autonomous operation is monitored by a modern image processing system, and the robotic arm can even be used in a (monitored) autonomous operating mode. Tasks such as gripping objects are then carried out automatically on voice command, allowing the system to be controlled from outside the wheelchair.
SensoJoints make doing complex tasks possible
As the robotic arm works in the direct vicinity of the user and even interacts with them in many tasks, unfailing compliance with the highest safety standards was an essential requirement. The requirements placed on robot kinematics and controllability were also very high, which is why a robotic arm was designed based on SensoJoints. These guarantee that movements are carried out safely and sensitively when humans and robots interact. Thanks to this state-of-the-art sensor technology and AI-supported control, the quality of life of people with limited mobility can be enormously improved.
Just a few months' development time
"The short development time of the robotic arm was also remarkable in this project," says Norbert Sporer. "The certification process alone for a self-developed drive solution would probably have taken several years otherwise." The Sensodrive Managing Director is visibly proud of the company's product, which was honoured with the Bavaria 2024 Innovation Award, among other prizes. "Cost savings are inevitable, especially in the care sector, and with our SensoJoints, we give medical technology companies a game changer for achieving them - because we offer ready-to-install drive modules that enable plug-and-play integration without additional safety certification."
Fully certified in accordance with all relevant safety standards in medical robotics.
Medical robots not only have to be highly precise, but also extremely safe. Thanks to their comprehensive safety functions, SensoJoint complete drives meet all the requirements of safety integrity level SIL3/PLe. The ready-to-install complete drives are already fully safety-certified in accordance with IEC 61508, ISO 13849 and IEC 61800-5-2, and enable significant savings to be made in terms of both time and costs when implementing ISO 10218-2, EN ISO 12100 and EN 60204-1 compared to companies developing their own solutions. "Manufacturers of medical and assistance robots can now concentrate fully on their core business," says Norbert Sporer. "We supply the best application-specific kinematics and drive technology."
