Tilburg Robotics

Tilburg Robotics is a Netherlands-based robotics company with close ties to Tilburg University and the city of Tilburg. The company was established to democratize access to advanced robotic manipulation platforms by providing cutting-edge, affordable robotic solutions that empower researchers and innovators without budget constraints. Its flagship product, the Tilburg Hand, is a 16-degree-of-freedom dexterous robotic hand designed specifically for research on dexterous manipulation using deep reinforcement learning techniques.

The Tilburg Hand achieves low cost through a combination of commercially available smart servo actuators and industrial-grade 3D printing via Multi Jet Fusion technology, producing parts with high dimensional accuracy and mechanical robustness comparable to injection-molded components. The hand offers an open-source software interface with a Python library, ROS integration, and pre-built demonstration scripts, making it straightforward for robotics researchers across disciplines to get started. With the rapid adoption of end-to-end deep learning methods in robotics, researchers from computer science, cognitive science, and engineering increasingly need physical manipulation platforms to test their algorithms.

Tilburg Robotics addresses this gap by providing both right-hand and left-hand configurations available for purchase through RobotShop and other distributors. The company maintains active open-source repositories on GitHub under the TilburgRobotics organization, including the Tilburg Hand software library, documentation hosted on ReadTheDocs, and example code. The Tilburg Hand project reflects a broader movement within the Dutch robotics ecosystem—ranked among Europe's most dynamic—to combine university research capabilities with commercial product development to accelerate progress in robot dexterity and manipulation intelligence.