Increasing pressure to boost productivity, shorter product life cycles, and a growing shortage of skilled workers are driving demand for automation solutions that can be quickly adapted to new tasks. Humanoid robotics is considered a promising approach for environments with frequently changing requirements. Robot hands play a key role as flexible end effectors: Many tasks in production and logistics involve handling a wide variety of objects, shapes, and materials–requirements that conventional grippers can often meet only to a limited extent. Against this background, SCHUNK SE & Co. KG and Robert Bosch Robotics GmbH are combining their expertise in a formal development cooperation. The aim is to leverage the experience of both companies and to test the solution in real industrial applications.
As a global technology company, Bosch contributes expertise in mechanics and precision engineering, electronics, as well as AI and software development to the cooperation. This is complemented by scaling and industrialization experience as well as broad industry expertise, enabling concrete requirements to be integrated into the development process at an early stage. SCHUNK contributes its expertise in flexible gripping and automation technology as well as around 20 years of experience in the development of humanoid hands. The shared goal is to develop an industrial hand that can be flexibly used across all types of humanoid robots.
“With Bosch, we gain a strong global development partner who combines technological expertise with industrial experience and has a broad portfolio for the development of robot hands,” says Timo Gessmann, CTO of SCHUNK.
“Through our cooperation with SCHUNK, we combine the strengths of two long-established German industrial companies to develop future technology. Robot hands play a key role in advancing humanoid robotics in production by enabling more precise handling than conventional gripping systems. The hand developed in our joint development cooperation has the potential to be used in a wide range of industrial applications in production, assembly, logistics, and internal service processes,” adds Mathias Pillin, CTO of Robert Bosch GmbH.
At Bosch ConnectedWorld 2026 (June 10 to 11, 2026, in Berlin), it was demonstrated how an innovative robotics application can be realized in a short time through a collaborative partnership. A demonstrator illustrated key capabilities of humanoid systems: perceiving the environment, gripping and handling objects, and executing a complete end-to-end process. By combining a humanoid robot with an anthropomorphic robot hand from SCHUNK, it becomes evident how high-performance robotic systems, intelligent gripping solutions, and advanced software can be integrated into a seamless industrial application. The example shows how crucial strong partnerships are for transferring humanoid robotics from development into robust industrial applications.