Jaco

A shiny black and silver three-fingered robotic arm. — Jaco is sleek and lightweight. Photo: Kinova

Jaco is a safe, lightweight robotic arm with a three-fingered hand. It's been used to assist people with upper-body disabilities, letting them perform tasks like picking up objects and opening doors.

Creator

Kinova

Year

2009

Country

Canada 🇨🇦

Categories

Features

A black and grey robotic arm with a three finger gripper moves to pick up a glass of water, and then put it back down. — See Jaco pick up a glass of water. Photos: Kinova

Did you know?

Jaco is named after one of the founders' uncles, who was an inventor and built an early robotic arm himself.

Close-up of the robots fingers show one is bent upward while two are straight. — You can control each of the three fingers individually. Photo: Kinova

A three-fingered robotic arm squeezes an apple. — The fingers adjust to any object, whether it's an apple... Photo: Kinova

Jaco's key features demonstrated. Video: Kinova

History

Kinova was founded in 2006 by Charles Deguire and Louis-Joseph Caron L'Ecuyer, two young Canadian engineers with a desire to become entrepreneurs. Deguire grew up with three uncles who had muscular dystrophy and lived confined in power wheelchairs controlled only with the small residual movements left in their fingers. One of the uncles, Jacques Forest, was an inventor and had already devised an ingenious mechanical arm that could pick up all kinds of objects. Motivated and inspired by his inventive uncle, who passed away in 1993, Deguire teamed up with L'Ecuyer to design a new robotic arm. Thus was born Jaco. Kinova has since created a broad range of robot arms for industrial, professional, and medical applications.

A three-fingered robotic arm gently holds an egg between two fingers. — ...or a hard-boiled egg. Photo: Kinova

A shiny black and silver three-fingered robotic arm shakes hands with a human. — Humans can safely shake hands with Jaco. Photo: Kinova

More Images

A smiling man in a wheelchair with a robotic arm attachment. — Jaco has a version designed to assist people in wheelchairs. Photo: Kinova

Specs

Overview: Compact, modular design. Equipped with an underactuated gripper for safety. Easy, plug-and-play installation.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2009
Website: assistive.kinovarobotics.com/product/jaco-robotic-arm
Height: 90 cm
Weight: 5.7 kg
Speed: 0.54 km/h (arm speed)
Sensors: Hall effect sensor, absolute position encoders, current sensor, and temperature sensor in every joint. Accelerometer in the base.
Actuators: DC brushless motors, harmonic drives.
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 9 (Arm: 6 DoF; Gripper: 3 DoF)
Materials: Carbon fiber shell with aluminum actuators.
Compute: Custom computing and control system.
Software: Custom software, with C#, C++, and Windows and Linux ROS interfaces.
Power: 24-V power supply
Cost: $50,000 for research version (includes case, joystick, mounting kit, and software)