SCHUNK

Market context

SCHUNK is one of the main component suppliers at the manipulation interface of industrial robotics. Its grippers, sensors, and humanoid-hand work place it close to the practical layer where robots make contact with parts, tools, and production workflows.

Products

• SVH 5-Finger Hand - SVH

Facts

• Website: https://www.schunk.com
• HQ: Lauffen am Neckar, Germany
• Founded: 1945
• Segment: End Effectors

Gripper and end-effector supplier

SCHUNK supplies industrial grippers, robot accessories and emerging humanoid hand technology for automation and manipulation tasks.

• Target environment: Factory automation cells, collaborative robot workcells, humanoid development programs and industrial manipulation environments.
• Deployment model: Component supply through grippers, end effectors, robot accessories and technology transfer into modular humanoid robot hands.
• Customer context: Robot OEMs, system integrators, industrial manufacturers, automation teams and humanoid robot developers.
• Workflow context: Gripping, clamping, workpiece handling, collaborative manipulation, humanoid hand development and end-of-arm tooling.
• Commercial maturity: Commercially mature end-effector supplier with an established industrial product base and newer humanoid-hand activity.
• Market position: Manipulation component supplier connecting industrial gripper leadership with emerging humanoid dexterity hardware.
• Adoption constraints: Adoption depends on payload needs, grip reliability, finger dexterity, safety, robot compatibility and industrial durability.
• Adjacent context: Adjacent context includes gripper suppliers, robotic hands, end-of-arm tooling, collaborative automation and humanoid manipulation.
• Source confidence: high

Events

• 2026-03-11 - Partnership - SCHUNK and DLR expand cooperation for humanoid robot hand technology transfer - SCHUNK and the German Aerospace Center agreed at the German Robotics Conference 2026 to further expand cooperation in humanoid robot hands. The collaboration aims to transfer research results into robust, industry-ready solutions more quickly. The work focuse…
• 2026-03-01 - Award - SCHUNK 6-axis force/torque sensor FTS wins Product of the Year 2026 category - SCHUNK's 6-axis force/torque sensor FTS won first place in the Robotics, Handling and Assembly Technology category of the INDUSTRIAL Production Products of the Year 2026 competition. The recognition highlights FTS as a robotics-relevant sensing product for in…
• 2026-01-01 - Company Formation - SCHUNK establishes technology spin-off for humanoid robot hands - SCHUNK established a new technology spin-off at the beginning of January 2026 to consolidate its humanoid robotics activities. The new company is focused on modular humanoid robot hands for industrial applications. SCHUNK positioned the spin-off around expand…
• 2025-11-18 - Demonstration - TE Connectivity and Cellios demonstrate automated wire-harness cell - The integrated cell converts individual components into a tested cable assembly without manual assembly. Robot-guided processes provide digital data capture, traceability and flexibility across cable-set variants. TE supplied terminals, connectors, applicatio…
• 2025-05-06 - Market Signal - SCHUNK previews intelligent automation portfolio for automatica 2025 - SCHUNK said it would present its intelligent automation portfolio at automatica 2025 in Munich. The portfolio covered standardized components, turnkey solutions, customized engineering and automation for industrial production. The event gave SCHUNK a trade-sh…
• 2024-11-29 - Research Publication - Dexterous handover paper implements reactive human-to-robot handovers on SCHUNK SVH - The paper presents reactive human-to-robot dexterous handovers for anthropomorphic hands. The abstract states the system uses a UR5 robot arm and a SCHUNK SVH Hand and evaluates handover of 30 novel objects. This is outside-team product research and is bound…
• 2024-08-08 - Research Publication - DiPGrasp paper evaluates differentiable grasp planning on SCHUNK SVH hand - DiPGrasp combines parallel local searching with differentiable grasp planning for dexterous robotic hands. The paper reports real-world experiments with the Barrett hand and the SCHUNK SVH 5-finger hand. This is outside-team product research and is bound to S…
• 2023-04-26 - Research Publication - SVH Hand use-case paper builds a realistic simulation model for dexterous manipulation - The paper focuses on realistic modeling and simulation of a dexterous robotic hand. The title identifies the SVH Hand use-case and the work is positioned around realistic simulation for multi-finger manipulation. This is outside-team product research and is b…
• 2021-10-18 - Demonstration - Sysaxes opens its premises for three-day cobotics showcase - An inauguration evening on October 18 preceded three open-house days from October 19 to 21, 2021. More than 100 visitors saw roughly ten applications featuring cobots, mobile robots, feeders and end-of-arm tools. Named participating partners included Universa…
• 2021-01-12 - Demonstration - Moley showcases on-sale robotic kitchen at CES 2021 - Moley showcased the on-sale consumer robotic kitchen during the all-digital CES 2021. The CES demonstration presented a dexterous robot integrated into a configurable luxury kitchen. Moley described SCHUNK as its exclusive hand partner after eleven developmen…
• 2020-12-06 - Product Launch - Moley launches consumer robotic kitchen at GITEX - Moley unveiled its first consumer robotic kitchen at Dubai's GITEX exhibition. The market-ready system launched with thirty chef-developed dishes and planned monthly recipe additions. SCHUNK collaborated on two articulated hands that manipulated ingredients,…
• 2020-10-26 - Research Publication - Spiking-neuron soft-grasping paper evaluates object grasping with SCHUNK SVH hand - The paper uses a spiking neural network to trigger reflexive grasping behavior on an anthropomorphic robotic hand. The abstract reports experiments with a SCHUNK SVH 5-finger hand grasping objects with different shapes, stiffness, and sizes. This is outside-t…
• 2020-05-21 - Research Publication - sEMG spiking-network paper controls SCHUNK SVH finger reflexes online - The paper classifies human sEMG signals and uses the output to trigger robotic finger reflexes. The abstract states the network controlled a real SCHUNK SVH 5-finger robotic hand online. This is outside-team product research and is bound to SVH 5-Finger Hand…
• 2019-11-01 - Research Publication - Vision-based assistive-manipulator paper tests object-control strategy with SCHUNK SVH - The paper proposes vision-based control for a five-fingered manipulator in activities-of-daily-living tasks. The abstract identifies the tested five-fingered manipulator as SCHUNK SVH and compares it with a Barrett Hand baseline in simulation. This is outside…

Supply chain relationships

• Moley Robotics - Consumer Kitchen Robotic Hand Supplier - SCHUNK developed the articulated hands used by Moley's launched consumer robotic kitchen.
• Yaskawa Electric Corporation - Schunk Co Act And Flexgrip Grippers - Yaskawa names SCHUNK Co-act and FlexGrip grippers for Smart Series and GP-series robots.
• FANUC - Schunk Gripping Components, Adaptations And Plugins Compatibility - SCHUNK says it offers components, adaptations and plugins for FANUC robot applications.
• ABB - Schunk Gripping Systems - SCHUNK says its gripping systems integrate into ABB robotics solutions.
• KUKA - Schunk Grippers - SCHUNK says KUKA robots and SCHUNK grippers are paired across industries and the iiQKA ecosystem.

Relationships

• TE Connectivity - Robotic Automation Partner - TE Connectivity worked with SCHUNK on the automated wire-harness production-cell demonstration.
• Sysaxes - Open House Robotics Partner - SCHUNK joined Sysaxes 2021 open-house cobotics showcase.

Context tags

• Adaptive grasping - Capability - SCHUNK grippers use adaptive grasping for varied part geometries.
• End-effector OEM - Stack Layer - SCHUNK builds complete end-effector systems.
• Robot end-effector builder - Peer Group - SCHUNK builds grippers and end-of-arm tooling for industrial robots and cobots.
• Industrial gripper builder - Peer Group - SCHUNK industrial grippers are used in part handling, assembly and production automation.
• End-of-arm tooling - Workflow - SCHUNK end-of-arm tooling includes grippers, changers and sensors.
• End-effector supplier - Peer Group - Supplies grippers and end-of-arm tooling for robotic systems
• Precision part handling - Capability - SCHUNK grippers handle precision industrial components.
• Robot tool changing - Workflow - SCHUNK quick-change systems support automated robot tool changing.
• Cobot tooling builder - Peer Group - SCHUNK provides tooling and accessories for collaborative robot arms.
• End-effector adjacent hardware - Stack Layer - Gripper hardware and end-of-arm tooling
• Factories - Customer Environment - Industrial manufacturing environments
• Component supply - Commercial Stage - Core business: gripper and clamping systems
• Factory automation cells - Customer Environment - SCHUNK end-effectors are used in factory automation cells.
• Robot joint actuation - Capability - Gripper actuation and clamping technology for robotic end-effectors
• End effector - Stack Layer - End-effector hardware for robot manipulation