The Shadow Robot Company Limited

The Shadow Robot Company is Britain’s longest-running robot company (winners of the Queen’s Awards 2019 under Innovation) and is experts at grasping and manipulation for robotic hands. Shadow has worked with companies and researchers all over the world, looking at new ways to apply robotics technologies to solve real-world problems. They develop and sell the DEXTEROUS HAND, recently used to advance research into AI (having won the AIconics Award for best innovation in AI hardware 2019), and the MODULAR GRASPER, an essential tool for supporting industry 4.0.

The company is also a pioneer in the fast-developing fields of teleoperation and telepresence with their tactile telerobot, where the Shadow Hand is combined with sensors and controlled via a haptic glove for touch feedback. Shadow’s technology is designed to take human operators out of harmful situations – such as nuclear decommissioning and bomb disposal.

The tech is also being developed for space as part of the AVATAR X programme resulting from work with ANA, making it their third collaboration with a space agency, with the first two being NASA and ESA (European Space Agency).

They have over 20 years of experience of Innovate UK and European research projects (FP7 and H2020) as researcher, developer and end-user. Shadow has a second base in Europe, Shadow España which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shadow Robot UK.