Balance Drive and Novagear Partner for Robotic Drives

Balance Drive and Swiss gear engineering company Novagear are joining forces to exhibit at Swiss Robotics Day 2026 in Zurich on November 13. The companies are pooling their expertise in gear technology, actuation, and system integration to offer tailored drive solutions to the robotics industry. Because modern robots place high demands on power density, precision, dynamics, and compact designs, the joint portfolio covers a broad spectrum of applications—ranging from traditional industrial robots to collaborative systems (cobots) and mobile autonomous units.

Trend Toward Complete Drive Integration
According to Jürg Fürst, Managing Director of Balance Drive AG, the trend in automation is clearly moving toward highly integrated actuators that combine gearing, motor control, sensors, and electronics into a single compact unit. In addition to these fully integrated units, the solution portfolio includes classic planetary gears, strain wave gears, and digital strain wave gears. Balance Drive, which also operates as an official Nabtesco partner for Switzerland, brings extensive expertise in the manufacturing and customer-specific integration of drive components to the partnership.

Engineering Expertise for Mobile and Industrial Robotics
As an independent engineering company, Novagear contributes specialized know-how in the development of planetary gearboxes. Through its long-standing collaboration with the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich and other technical organizations, Novagear thoroughly understands the complex kinematic requirements of mobile and industrial robotics. André Thuswaldner, Managing Director of Novagear AG, emphasizes that this combined technology and manufacturing expertise enables the partners to support customers comprehensively on demanding projects—from the initial design phase through to the final implementation of the drive technology.

Additional Context: Integrated Actuators in Modern Robotics
This section details technical specifications and competitive benchmarking not included in the original product announcement.

In modern robotics, particularly in collaborative robots (cobots) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs), the power density of joint drives is crucial. Traditional powertrains featuring separated servomotors, flanged gearboxes, and external inverters often consume excessive physical space and increase susceptibility to failures via external cabling. The shift toward integrated smart actuators solves this problem: the brushless torque motor, backlash-free precision gearbox (frequently cycloidal or strain wave gears), high-resolution encoders, and servo controller are fused into a single, thermally optimized housing. This integration significantly reduces weight on the robot arm, minimizes mass inertia, and enables highly dynamic torque control via decentralized control technologies, which is essential for force-torque sensing and safe human-robot collaboration.

Edited by industrial journalist Lekshman Ramdas, with AI assistance.

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