Exciting Solutions Unveiled at the 2015 Pack Expo

Every time the PACK Expo comes around, man­u­fac­tur­ers and inte­gra­tors can be sure that the robot­ics indus­try is going to roll out their newest solu­tions to improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty across the board. The 2015 PACK Expo did not dis­ap­point. Com­pa­nies like Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, Uni­ver­sal Robots, and Motoman unveiled some of their most excit­ing robots and sys­tems to date, once again inject­ing the mar­ket with fresh ideas and strate­gies for automation.

At the Fanuc Robot­ics booth, atten­dees were able to see the first Fanuc Col­lab­o­ra­tive robot, the CR-35iA. The CR35iA is the per­fect solu­tion for heavy pack­ing and pal­letiz­ing process­es, while still being able to inter­act with humans and share the work­space with them. Fanuc also exhib­it­ed high speed group­ing sys­tems, 3D bin pick­ing solu­tions, and pick and place sys­tems that use vision inspection.

When atten­dees ven­tured over to the Yaskawa Motoman Robot­ics booth, they got to see the Sin­gu­lar Con­trol sys­tem, a Yaskawa Motoman sys­tem that is able to unite robots and ser­vo motion under the same con­trol. This sys­tem gives man­u­fac­tur­ers the abil­i­ty to uti­lize motion con­trol and robot con­trol seam­less­ly, with­out need­ing to employ a spe­cial­ist in robot pro­gram­ming, accord­ing to Yaskawa Motoman. By com­bin­ing a gantry and artic­u­lat­ed robot into the same sys­tem, with the abil­i­ty to con­trol both with the same soft­ware, com­pa­nies could save mon­ey on labor and pro­gram­ming costs.

At the ABB Robot­ics booth, it was back to col­lab­o­ra­tion, a big trend in new­er robots, with the ABB YuMi robot sys­tem. The YuMi made its first North Amer­i­can pub­lic appear­ance at the PACK Expo this year, exhibit­ing its dual-armed col­lab­o­ra­tive abil­i­ties. This would allow it to work indi­vid­u­al­ly or col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly, while still work­ing along­side a human coun­ter­part. ABB also fea­tured a Soft Robot­ics Adap­tive Grip­per that enables its Flex­Pick­er to adapt to a vari­ety of object sizes, shapes, and weights, with­out cut­ting down on pro­duc­tion speed.

Last, but def­i­nite­ly not least, was the KUKA Robot­ics booth, where KUKA debuted its newest robot in the AGILUS series – the KR AGILUS HM. This new small robot mod­el is engi­neered with cor­ro­sion-resis­tant sur­faces to pre­vent build-up of sen­si­tive mate­ri­als, accord­ing to KUKA. Anoth­er addi­tion to the col­lab­o­ra­tion robot­ic trend, KUKA gave a hands-on demon­stra­tion of their col­lab­o­ra­tive robot, the LBR iiwa, a robot with a high rate of repeata­bil­i­ty and intel­li­gence, which allows it to auto­mate the most del­i­cate tasks – tasks once thought impos­si­ble to auto­mate. KUKA also gave atten­dees a look at a new robot for their arc­tic series, the KR 180 R3200 PA. 

All in all, the PACK Expo was a great suc­cess, show­ing off some of the best robot inno­va­tions the indus­try has to offer. 

Are you inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about the robots list­ed above, or oth­er robots from their respec­tive manufacturers? 

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact us today online or at 877−762−6881.