Teaching in robots is child's play

The innovative stylus created by Dresden startup Wandelbots makes a number of things easier, such as in the case of SMEs, who, by using the new technology, are able to become robotics specialists without any prior programming knowledge. ‘The TracePen’s strengths become particularly evident in mechanically guided applications such as gluing, painting and welding’, says Jan Falkenberg, head of engineering at Wandelbots. He adds that new process stages can be implemented 70 times faster, and costs reduced by up to 90 per cent.

Established out of the IT faculty at the TU Dresden, the startup was founded in 2017. Today, it is one of the world’s most successful robotics startups. Even the very first innovation developed by this Dresden-based think tank, a smart sensor jacket, made it onto the market and was used by Volkswagen.

A worker runs a wireless pen, known as the TracePen, precisely over the areas of the workpiece where a robot will then apply the welded seams. Almost simultaneously, the software programmes the robot, which is immediately able to perform the learned steps independently.