Flexible Gripper Arm for High-Mix, Low-Volume Production

A five-finger gripper on a collaborative arm promises flexibility, but its payload maxes at 20 kg.

At AW 2026, Techman Robot Korea and Tesollo unveiled an articulated, multi-jointed grasping system aimed squarely at high-mix, low-volume production. The duo foregrounded a five-fingered gripper, the DG-5F-S, mounted on a TM robot arm and described the setup as an “adaptive grasping technology” capable of extending automation into processes traditional robots struggle with. Jaesuk Choi, Tesollo’s strategic planning team manager, framed the collaboration as a practical bridge between industrial reliability and nuanced object handling. “Our Korean customers include Samsung, LG Electronics, and Hyundai, and we have too many U.S. orders to list,” he told The Robot Report, underscoring a market where flexibility often outruns fixed tooling.

The system centers on a Delto gripper integrated with the TM arm, with a camera that can be mounted underneath the gripper. Tesollo notes a maximum payload of 20 kg (44 lb), a ceiling that signals this platform’s sweet spot for mid-sized components rather than wholly payload-intensive tasks. The press and demo materials also reference prior demonstrations that teleoperate a humanoid hand via a TM arm—indicating a continued push toward end effectors that mimic the versatility of human grasping, but this time offered as a more compact, industrial-ready combination.

From a practitioner’s perspective, the appeal is clear: high-mix, low-volume environments—think consumer electronics assemblies, automotive subassemblies, or logistics pick-and-place tasks with frequent part changes—benefit from an end effector that can adjust grip strategy without swapping tooling. The collaboration leverages the perceived reliability of a well-known industrial arm with a more adaptable hand geometry, potentially reducing downtime between SKUs and enabling quicker changeovers.

But there are important caveats. The public materials stop short of enumerating DOF (degrees of freedom) counts for the humanoid hand within this system, and they do not publish a comprehensive power, runtime, or charging specification. The five-finger design implies more joints and control channels than a simple three-finger gripper, but without disclosed figures engineers cannot assess closed-loop control complexity, torque budgets, or the fidelity of motion for complex grasps. In other words, the system’s advertised flexibility comes with questions about reliability in real-world cycles, gripper endurance at frequent changeovers, and how the control stack handles variances in part geometry, surface friction, and vibration on a busy line.

Technology readiness, today, sits at the demonstration/market-readiness boundary. The AW 2026 showcase confirms industry interest and a credible path to deployment, but there is a meaningful gap between a trade-show demonstration and field-ready performance in a high-velocity production line. While Tesollo’s DG-5F-S presents as an enhanced end effector for mixed-part lines, the absence of disclosed field metrics—cycle times, error rates, and maintenance intervals—means adopters must temper expectations and expect a validation phase before committing capital to a live line.

Compared with prior iterations, the combination of a humanoid-appearing grasping system with a TM arm indicates a tangible step up in adaptability over rigid, fixed tooling. The teleoperation demonstrations suggested a near-human responsiveness in grasp planning, and the new integration with a five-finger, possibly more dexterous hand hints at improved success across a broader set of part geometries without retooling. Still, without explicit performance benchmarks, it’s prudent to view this as a promising platform-in-formation rather than a turnkey solution.

Power, runtime, and charging details—crucial for planning shifts and energy budgets on the manufacturing floor—remain undisclosed. Practitioners should anticipate that typical industrial servo systems powering such hands run on standard 24–48V drives with varying peak torque demands; real-world runtimes depend on duty cycles, grip frequency, and battery or power-supply sizing. Until Tesollo and Techman publish more complete specifications, the best guidance is to treat this as a compelling demo-to-prototype path, with room to prove up in controlled environments before committing to a full-rate deployment.

In short, the Tesollo-Techman pairing advances the narrative that flexible, human-inspired grasping can coexist with robust industrial robotics. But for R&D teams and investment committees, the headline remains: a credible, five-finger end effector on a TM arm is on display, payload-limited to 20 kg, with real-world readiness to be proven in the field over the next 12–24 months.

Sources

Tesollo and Techman Robot unveil robot for high-mix, low-volume production