Schaeffler’s autonomous mobile robot has won the main award of Red Dot Design

Schaeffler, a global automotive and industrial supplier, won the Red Dot: Best of the Best award for its project Dual Extendable (DEX), an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) in the Red Dot Design Award in the design concept category.

DEX was designed to redefine the agility and intelligence of autonomous mobile robot (AMR) platforms and their collaboration with shop floor workers. Featuring bidirectional leg extensions, WLAN and middleware integration, 2D/3D SLAM-based precision localization, and speech and gesture recognition capabilities, DEX serves as a research testbed to combine functionality with intelligent social behavior to support and enhance performance in industry settings for a wide range of tasks.

Commenting on the award, Han Boon Siew, Chief Information Officer Schaeffler Asia Pacific, Schaeffler Hub Director of Future Research, said: “Awarding one of the most prestigious ‘Best of the Best’ awards for DEX is a testament to our continued passion and commitment to developing cutting-edge solutions to unlock new possibilities for mobility and movement – both for our customers and our manufacturing operations.”

The research project is part of the Schaeffler Hub for Advanced Research (SHARE) program, which includes a global research network with the world’s leading universities through the company-on-campus concept. The concept enables a particularly intensive exchange and close collaboration between Schaeffler employees, scientists and academics through applied research to expand the current state of technology and transfer research ideas into product development activities.

DEX was also developed in collaboration with Orcadesign Consultants Pte. Ltd., who worked closely with the SHARE technology team at NTU to visualize the concept and vision of DEX, while combining their ideas and expertise in defining the user experience, which included the shape and touch points of the robot.

“At Schaeffler, we see collaboration as key to the strategic development of components and technologies to meet the demands of future-oriented trends in the automotive and industrial sectors. Through the SHARE program, we aim to combine our component and systems expertise with the technological expertise of academic institutions and industry experts to enhance our technological and methodological capabilities,” added Mr. Khan.

To professionally appreciate the wide range of design, the Red Dot Design Award has three different disciplines: Red Dot Award: Product Design, Red Dot Award: Communication Design and Red Dot Award: Design Concept. The Red Dot Award is organized by the Design-Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany and is one of the largest design competitions in the world.

The Red Dot Awards ceremony will take place on 27 September 2022, where the industry will come together to celebrate the success and outstanding achievements of the winners.