Shadow Robot Timeline

Events

• 2026-10-20 - Partnership - Shadow Robot and Fraunhofer IFF begin tactile-manipulation research - The project uses dexterous hands mounted on conventional collaborative robot arms, rather than developing a humanoid robot. Shadow contributes hand hardware, integration and teleoperation; IFF contributes cognitive robotics, real-time control and… - source: iff.fraunhofer.de
• 2026-06-18 - Product Launch - Touchlab releases TACTO tactile e-skin at ICRA 2026 - Official integrations include the Shadow Robot Dexterous Hand and Tesollo DG-5F. Touchlab says its sensor engineering focuses on activation force, sensitivity, noise, cross-talk, drift and mechanical integration. - source: touchlab.io
• 2026-06-15 - Demonstration - Demonstration: Shadow Robot demonstrated both Shadow Hand and DEX-EE Chiral at ICRA 2026 using MANUS gloves - MANUS gloves were used to control Shadow Hand during its ICRA 2026 demonstration. The DEX-EE Chiral hand was demonstrated separately with the same glove interface. - source: manus-meta.com
• 2025-05-29 - Award - ARIA awards GBP 11M R&D funding to Shadow Robot and partners - ARIA awarded GBP 11M to Shadow Robot and partners for the OGRES and UPWARD advanced robotic-dexterity projects. OGRES focuses on robotic-hand design tooling and physical validation; UPWARD focuses on power distribution for more capable robot hands. The… - source: shadowrobot.com
• 2024-05-09 - Product Launch - Shadow Robot unveils DEX-EE hand developed with Google DeepMind - Shadow Robot announced DEX-EE on May 9, 2024, positioning it as a robust dexterous hand for AI research. The company said DEX-EE was built by Shadow Robot and developed with research and insights from the Google DeepMind robotics team. Shadow said the hand… - source: shadowrobot.com
• 2019-10-15 - Research Publication - OpenAI trains robotic hand to solve a Rubik's Cube with Automatic Domain Randomization - OpenAI trained neural networks to solve a Rubik's Cube with a human-like robotic hand using reinforcement learning in simulation. The project introduced Automatic Domain Randomization to create progressively harder simulated environments for sim-to-real… - source: openai.com
• 2019-04-17 - Funding - Innovate UK awards Shadow Robot GBP 650k innovation loan for touch-transmitting teleoperation - Innovate UK awarded Shadow Robot a GBP 650k innovation loan for remote-touch teleoperation technology. The announcement centered on the Shadow Dexterous Hand, tactile fingertip sensing and haptic feedback for remote operation over long distances. Shadow… - source: shadowrobot.com
• 2018-06-24 - Partnership - Shadow Robot, SynTouch and HaptX demonstrate Tactile Telerobot - Shadow Robot said the Tactile Telerobot integrated its dexterous hand with SynTouch BioTac sensors and HaptX haptic gloves. The team demonstrated an operator in California controlling a Shadow hand in London while receiving touch feedback from the robot… - source: shadowrobot.com
• 2017-03-21 - Partnership - Shadow Robot starts Innovate UK semi-autonomous teleoperation project - Shadow Robot said an Innovate UK-backed semi-autonomous teleoperation demonstrator launched on March 1, 2017. The project paired Shadow Dexterous Hand hardware with an OC Robotics snake-arm robot, Cambrian Intelligence augmented-VR work and UCL… - source: shadowrobot.com
• 2016-09-15 - Product Launch - Shadow Robot launches Smart Grasping System at Innovate 2016 - Shadow Robot introduced the Smart Grasping System at Innovate 2016 as an industrial grasper with built-in intelligence. The company described a grasp library, an onboard vision system and torque sensing on each joint to support flexible object handling. The… - source: shadowrobot.com
• 2015-04-14 - Demonstration - Moley unveils robotic-chef prototype at Hannover Messe - Moley unveiled its proof-of-concept robotic chef at Hannover Messe in April 2015. Two robotic arms reproduced chef Tim Anderson's captured movements to prepare crab bisque. Shadow Robot developed the prototype hands with twenty motors, twenty-four joints… - source: time.com