General Motors, Bioservo Enter Robotic Glove Tech Licensing Agreement

Bioservo Technologies has licensed a robotic glove technology built by General Motors and NASA with the intent to repurpose the device for healthcare and manufacturing applications.

The licensing deal between the two companies allows Bioservo to integrate its Soft Extra Muscle technology to the battery-powered wearable RoboGlove in an effort to build a grasp assist device that will work to help address human operator efficiency issues, GM said Wednesday.

“Combining the best of three worlds – space technology from NASA, engineering from GM and medtech from Bioservo – in a new industrial glove could lead to industrial scale use of the technology,” said Tomas Ward, Bioservo Technologies CEO.

GM plans to test the resulting integrated device at some of the automobile maker’s plants while BioServe aims to market the modified glove for medical rehabilitation and industrial uses.

NASA and GM developed the RoboGlove under a nine-year collaborative effort aimed to help astronauts in the International Space Station reduce fatigue when they handle tools.