DEX-EE is the result of five years’ collaborative design between Shadow Robot and Google DeepMind. We delve into the relationship and workflows that kept this epic partnership on track at the very bleeding edge of research needs, even as the world transformed around us.

Shadow Robot unveils DEX-EE, a transformative robot for use in dexterous manipulation and machine learning research, designed in collaboration with Google DeepMind.  

Humans excel at manual tasks, and that ideally, robots should surpass us in these functions. At times, we have the advantage due to our superior dexterity, while in other instances, we can perform tasks that robots should, in theory, be capable of. As we advance robotics our goal is to effectively transfer our human skills to robots.

As we prepare to attend and exhibit at ICRA 2024 in Yokohama, we caught up with Matthew Godden, Senior Robotics Design Engineer. He has been at Shadow for just over 25 years, initially as his year out in industry and then after he graduated in 2000 with a degree in robotics and electronic engineering. He has designed all manner of robot body parts – in his words “anything that moves!” – and is also involved in developing the company’s product strategy.

Shadow Robot unveils the world’s most robust dexterous robot hand for AI research, developed in partnership w...

Humans excel at manual tasks, and that ideally, robots should surpass us in these functions. At times, we have the advantage due to our superior dexterity, while in other instances, we can perform tasks that robots should, in theory, be capable of. As we advance robotics our goal is to effectively transfer our human skills to robots.

A robotic manipulator — or robotic arm — is an electronically controlled component with several segments to allow movement. Here’s a closer look at how they function and why people design them in particular ways.