MOTORS, DRIVES & CONTROLS
SMALL AND READY TO CONQUER THE WORLD
Stefan Roschi details the flat motors that are powering an innovative new robot arm
Jonathan Coulombe and Ilian Bonev. The two met at the ÉTS engineering university in Montreal, Canada where Bonev is a professor. Together, they developed a training robot for colleges and universities before taking a step further with Mecademic. Their goal was to develop an industrial robot that was smaller, more precise and more intuitive to operate than any of the existing models. Three years later, Bonev and Coulombe finally made
A
it: their Meca500 is a robot arm with six degrees of freedom and is only half the size of a regular industrial robot. It weighs only 5kg and the base is about the size of your palm. Nevertheless, it has a load capacity of 500g. The controller is integrated, which saves even more space and drastically simplifies operation. It only takes a 24V power supply, a computer and an Ethernet cable to program and operate the Meca500. Ilian Bonev is proud of his development: “It was quite
a challenge to fit all the components into such a small space,” he states. The drives needed to be small, powerful and compliant with high quality standards. “They simply have to be the best in terms of precision and long service
Canadian company has set itself the goal of building the world’s smallest and most accurate industrial robot arm. The device is small enough to be held in one hand. Mecademic was founded in 2013 by
life. After all, they must run for several years in continuous operation.” That’s why Mecademic
decided to use brushless flat motors from maxon. These DC motors are renowned for their compact design and high torque. In the Meca500, they are combined with zero-backlash gearheads and high-resolution encoders for precise movements. The robot arm has a repeatability of 0.005mm. That is 20 times less than the thickness of a sheet of printing paper.
The Meca500 has six degrees of freedom and weighs only 5kg. The controller is integrated into the base Image courtesy of Mecademic
COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS “Our goal is to create a new market for industrial robots and automation,” says Bonev. “We want to offer the smallest and most precise robots for industrial users to pave the way for new products, applications and discoveries.” New types of robots are already being developed.
The start-up is also working on a gripper for the arm. Customers receive firmware updates as soon as they become available. With these updates, the Meca500 will soon be able to function as a collaborative robot, with a function to prevent collisions and a zero gravity mode. Many other applications are possible – the robot arm is ideal to perform pick-and-place or inspection tasks. Several Meca500 robots are already in use across the
world, with many more to come. Mecademic produces the robot arms in-house to ensure quality. Its staff machine the aluminium parts of the arm on precision equipment and assemble the components in-house. l
maxon motor offers a wide selection of brushless flat motors perfectly suited for applications in robotics
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www.engineerlive.com
Stefan Roschi is with maxon motor.
www.maxonmotor.com
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