AI Software for Robots and Flexible Automation

AI gathers so much media hype that I must curtail my natural bent toward contrarianism. Artificial Intelligence in its various forms has advanced many applications. However, its hype often exceeds the actual applicability. Some new products offer more potential than immediate use. Industrial and manufacturing announcements are often more immediately accessible than the more general one.

This news announces AI-based software that is now useful add-on for FANUC robots with some interesting use cases.

Micropsi Industries announced that its artificial intelligence (AI)-based software MIRAI is now compatible with numerous robots produced by FANUC. With MIRAI, FANUC customers can now add valuable hand-eye coordination to multiple FANUC industrial and collaborative robots (cobots) to handle difficult-to-automate functions such as cable plugging and assembly.

Using AI, the MIRAI controller generates robot movements directly and in real-time. Robot skills are trained, not programmed, in a few days through human demonstration, without requiring knowledge of programming or AI. To train a robot, a human repeatedly demonstrates a task by manually guiding the robot by the robot’s wrist. The recorded movements are then transformed into a skill.

Cable plugging applications such as flat ribbon cables for the electronics industry or industrial automotive connectors typically require a high degree of flexibility to accommodate shape instability, making it a difficult task for any robot. MIRAI makes this type of application possible, says Prof. Dominik Bösl, chief technology officer, Micropsi Industries.

Universal Robots Reaches 1,000 Employees

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Cobots (collaborative robots) have swept the industrial world. I can’t believe it’s been seventeen years. The advances over the past five or so have been remarkable. This is a short piece about one company’s growth with a bit of history.

Seventeen years after it was founded by three visionary young researchers in a basement, Universal Robots has just reached a 1,000-employee milestone.

Universal Robots, the largest company in a fast-growing Danish robotics hub, has become the cluster’s first organization to reach 1,000 employees – one of only a few Danish companies founded in this millennium to hit this milestone.

Since its first collaborative robot (cobot) was launched in 2008, Universal Robots has grown to be a global market leader in cobots with offices in more than 20 countries worldwide. The company’s success is reflected in the growth of an entire robotics cluster, meaning Denmark is now home to more than 400 robotics companies, making the Danish city of Odense one of the leading robotics hubs in the world.

Kim Povlsen, President of Universal Robots, comments: “This is an historic milestone for us, and we are proud of how we have evolved from being a local startup in the basement under the university to becoming a global cobot pioneer and market leader. Above all, it shows that we have a fantastic product and that many companies around the world can see the benefits of using our robots to develop their business.”

Universal Robots started in 2005, when three young researchers – Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy, and Kristian Kassow – from the University of Southern Denmark were frustrated by how the robots of the time were heavy, expensive and complicated to use. This gave them the idea to create a robot that is flexible, safe to work with, and easier to install and program.

As Universal Robots has thrived, so too has the Danish robotics scene, centered around Odense, a city of 200,000 people. The number of people employed by Danish robotics companies is forecast to reach 23,000 by 2025, while total revenues from the industry are already more than €2.8 billion.

During the past year, Universal Robots has hired more than 200 employees to ensure the company is ready to realize the enormous growth potential that lies ahead.

The UR President predicts an increasing need for automation in the coming years, driven by several different things: a desire to protect employees from dangerous and monotonous tasks; reshoring, where companies move production closer to home in response to an uncertain world; and above all, a shortage of labor which will only get worse in the coming years.

Epson Robots Expands VT6L 6-Axis Robot Series and RC+ Express Software

Robotic innovation continues apace emphasizing ease-of-use and reduced pricing. I had thought that the technology had matured for industrial applications. A conversation with Epson product people recently revealed some new tricks that remain to innovate within the SCARA robotic technology.

How about adapting a 6-axis robot for mounting in an autonomous mobile robot (AMR)? This DC-powered version of the Epson VT6L robot shows the essence of creativity—bringing two ideas together to form something new and useful.

The VT6L-DC offers the same powerful features found in Epson’s high-end robots. With a built-in controller, reach of up to 900 mm and a payload of up to 6 kg, it enables high throughput and operational flexibility in a space-saving design. The VT6L-DC comes equipped with two development environments – Epson RC+ for full-featured, easy-to-learn programming and Epson RC+ Express for no-code programming.

Additional VTL6-DC features include:

  • SlimLine Design – compact wrist pitch enables access to hard-to-reach areas in confined spaces
  • Fast, Easy Integration – installs in minutes; requires less time and money for system integration
  • Integrated Vision Guidance Option – designed specifically for robot guidance; makes it easy to automate simple applications when vision is required
  • Simplified Cabling – hollow end-of-arm design makes end-of-arm tooling easier than ever
  • No Battery Required for Encoder – minimizes downtime and reduces overall cost of ownership
  • Application Versatility – ideal for machine-tool and injection-molding load/unload, pick-and-place, dispensing and mobile applications

Additional RC+ Express features include:

  • Simple to Navigate – clear, intuitive, visual user interface makes it easy to learn and manage key functions like jogging, gripper control and motion
  • Common Application Templates Included – quickly create common pick-and-place, palletizing and depalletizing applications with ready-to-use template programs and tutorials
  • Develop Applications with Low Risk – built-in 3D simulator lets you conveniently program and fine-tune applications before hardware setup; run robot at low power and speed in rehearsal mode when testing new programs
  • Tablet-Based Windows OS Environment –compatible with touchscreen devices, in addition to PCs, to easily create robot applications 
  • Low Total Cost of Ownership – Epson RC+ Express is included with robot purchases and no recurring licensing fees

ABB Rebrands Autonomous Mobile Robot Portfolio

A little marketing news plus a note about ABB extending its robotic reach.

  • ABB is the only company with a comprehensive and integrated offering of robots, AMRs and machine automation solutions.
  • ASTI Mobile Robotics’ solutions are now rebranded and integrated into ABB’s portfolio, grouped under the Flexley name. The first models to be released, Flexley Tug and Flexley Mover.
  • Building on ASTI’s use of laser scanner-based 2D SLAM navigation, the future ABB autonomous mobile robots will also benefit from pioneering VSLAM technology of Sevensense Robotics – a Swiss start-up in ABB’s portfolio of partner companies – that enables mobile robots to navigate complex and dynamic environments.
  • ABB has worked with strategic partner Expert Technology Group in the UK to deliver a complete assembly line based on AMRs for a technological. Transporting products between robotic automation cells and manual assembly stations, ABB’s automation solution combines the use of ABB robots, vision function packages and AMRs.
  • The integration of ASTI into ABB includes a complete rebranding of all its offices and facilities, as well as the launch of a new look web site at amr.robotics.abb.com
  • Continuing to use the ASTI name is the ASTI Foundation, which was founded in 2017 to educate and equip young people with the skills to thrive in an age of digital transformation. 

Realtime Robotics Integrates Robot Motion Planning & Control Software With Siemens Process Simulate

Integration and collaboration are the name of the current game in the industrial technology market. If only there were more pervasive interoperability. But this one is interesting.

Realtime Robotics announced that it has teamed with Siemens to integrate its RapidPlan software with Siemens Process Simulate in the company’s Tecnomatix portfolio.

The programming, deployment and control of industrial robots is automated, autonomously generating and choreographing all robot movements. Users create a digital twin simulation of their workcell and then simply point and click on robots and target points to create and visualize collision-free task plans, saving weeks to months of programming time per project.

  • Streamline Cell Commissioning.
  • Improve Decision-Making .
  • Quickly Evaluate and Validate Options.
  • Work Directly in Siemens Process Simulate.
  • Automatic Viapoints and Interlocks.

Autonomous Mobile Industrial Robots Divisions Merge

What happens when smaller companies are acquired? Organizational changes. This may make it easier for customers to combine autonomous mobile robot technologies into their material handling applications.

Teradyne companies Mobile Industrial Robots  (MiR) and AutoGuide Mobile Robots have merged to become a single supplier of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that can quickly, easily and cost-effectively manage internal logistics.

A few key points: 

  • Teradyne executive Walter Vahey is the new president of MiR.
  • Headquarters will be in Odense, Denmark, where MiR has managed its global operations since its launch in 2013. 
  • MiR develops and markets safe and collaborative mobile robots that can quickly, easily and cost-effectively manage internal logistics, freeing up employees to perform higher-value activities.
  • Prior to the merge, MiR offered a broad range of AMRs capable of carrying payloads and pallets up to 3000 pounds (1350kg). By combining with AutoGuide, the portfolio will expand to include high payload AMR tuggers and forklifts that will operate on the MiRFleet software.

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