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Information briefs for the week check out Automate’s re-located, reenergized automation occasion and crowd appreciation, old-line robotic distributors and their new traces of AMRs, cobots taking up whole options fairly than duties, the continued transformation of the educate pendant, Doosan’s re-think of the cobot ecosystem and “sensible” cobotics, Techman’s brand-new cobot lineup of elevated performance, and Robotiq’s evolving suite of cobot software options.
Resurgent Automate in a resurgent Detroit
Automate 2022 got here in with a convincing bang, and stayed energized—finish to finish! —for 4 action-filled days (June 6-9). It started with a contemporary new restart in its return to Detroit, opening vast its doorways to attendees wanting to see each other nose to nose once more.
Plenty of new and first-ever logos hung over cubicles among the many Automate regulars, whereas plenty of beginner attendees bought a first-hand take a look at what North America’s largest automation present is all about.
Automate’s profitable 2022 displaying has it now promising a fair greater, higher automation occasion subsequent 12 months, 2023.
Jeff Burnstein, president of the Affiliation for Advancing Automation (A3), the present’s organizer, mentioned: “Detroit is popping into the subsequent main know-how hub in the US. That is an thrilling change for us and our exhibitors, permitting Automate to develop in dimension and know-how scope because the automation trade continues its regular progress. The Brookings Establishment rated Detroit #4 on a listing of the nation’s hubs for superior know-how employment.”
In two quick years
It’s additionally fascinating how shortly issues have modified in robotics, particularly cobotics, because the final Automate. Two years and one pandemic in the past, Automate in Chicago had loads of cobots performing duties, whereas displaying hardly any autonomous cellular robots or AMRs. Now, in 2022, cobots are taking up not simply job completions however whole workflow options, whereas AMRs are seemingly all over the place and supplied from an ever-increasing vendor pool.
Simply take a look at the listing of old-line robotic distributors that rolled into Detroit sporting new traces of cellular robots: KUKA, FANUC, Staubli, Yaskawa, and ABB. Why all of the sudden curiosity from decades-old robotic distributors? Logistics! An ideal storm of issues to maneuver from one place to a different has settled in for a protracted keep.
One thing occurred within the temporary interval between Chicago and Detroit referred to as “Amazon-style ecommerce,” and now everybody’s agog with same-day, next-day, and two-day deliveries, whereas, on the similar time, the numbers of little brown bins wanted to be shipped witnessed an exponential enhance. An ideal storm!
Korea-based Doosan Robotics, mixed each, placing its cobot arm atop an AMR, and had it unloading bins at its sales space.
These industrial cellular robots supply flexibility of switch amongst a number of workstations, whereas seamlessly enabling a cobot to maneuver from machine tending, to components switch, to shelf choosing, warehousing, meeting, and even to basic materials dealing with.
Palletizing robots are scorching as of late with numerous distributors competing for enterprise. For Doosan, palletizing is only one of six new cobot configurations launched over the previous 12 months that appear to cowl a number of labor flows from making espresso, to the NIVA for movie/video manufacturing, to plugging in and charging electrical automobiles (EV), which goes to change into a increasingly more acquainted a sight because the EV revolution continues to quickly develop.
With the purpose of working and controlling a whole ecosystem of differing robotic sorts and types, for each specialists and inexperienced persons alike, Doosan additionally launched a brand new, three-part, robotic working system referred to as the DART Suite (see explainer video beneath).
Doosan is only one instance of cobots reworking from programmed, job orientation to options orientation.
Erik Nieves, CEO and founding father of Plus One Robotics, with 25 years of expertise with Yaskawa, simply sees the cobot transitioning from duties to options. Placing a cobot to work on a single job might relieve a bottleneck, he factors out, however the bottleneck often simply strikes downstream to a different locale. The necessity is for an total answer to getting the work completed fairly than addressing one bottleneck at a time.
Taiwan-based Techman Robotic, a subsidiary of Quanta Laptop, arrived with its newly upgraded TM Techman S cobot collection that sports activities new options like mud and water resistance capabilities, plus a newly developed robotic educate pendent to make instructing and deploying robots simpler and sooner.
The subplot all through the Automate cobot story appears to be plenty of upgrades to show pendants and simplifications with consumer interfaces. Each Doosan and Techman did, and so they weren’t alone. Clearly, the trouble is to demystify use a cobot for the non-expert, like many SMEs. Backside line: cobots providing whole options ring a bit hole if programming the job is herculean, costly, a visible flip off, or all three.
Whole workflow options weren’t only for cobots. Quebec-based Robotiq, well-known maker of grippers (EOATs), had its personal “whole answer sales space” as properly that touted palletizing, machine tending, and screwdriving (the three biggies for any and all cobots to beat). As Robotiq’s web site stresses: “Let merchandise palletize themselves” which is unquestionably about as TOTAL as something will get!
Beginner to Automate was Kassow Robotics (Denmark, based simply since 2019; and since 2022 majority owned by Bosch Rexroth), confirmed up with a novel line of 5 7-axis cobots. Right here was one other cobot touting its “easy programming” strategies, and likewise promising that “the seventh axis permits steady dishing out, welding, and materials elimination functions, no matter entry angle, with out the necessity to reorient the arm…excellent for limited-space retrofits.”
Denmark’s Common Robots, with its web site flashing: “One thing Large Is Coming…” had a shocking prelude at its Automate sales space to an upcoming main announcement, supposedly to be delivered at AUTOMATICA (Munich) in late June by its new president Kim Povlsen. A brand new model, they referred to as a prototype cobot, sat at UR’s sales space (right here photographed by The Robotic Report’s Steve Crowe). Gone is the all-too acquainted cobot from the world chief in cobots. Might this be the massive reveal promised by UR?
Subsequent 12 months’s promise
Automate returns to Detroit subsequent 12 months, 2023; thereafter, it’s going to run each two years (2025).
With the tempo of automation accelerating frequently, it might not be shocking to see new lessons of cobots and AMRs—and myriad sensors and computing and possibly even 5G—popping up and uplifting automation to new heights.
One factor is for positive with automation; there’s by no means a boring second.
Detroit 2023, be there!
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