AUTOMATION
In addition to a human-like body and face, Comau’s Amico robot features two Schunk SDH2 grippers and a multi-articulated gripping system with three fingers, allowing it to grab a wide range of objects.
Go big or go home FANUC, which is headquartered in Yamanashi Prefec-
ture in Japan, debuted its contribution to the collaborative arena, the CR-35iA, in June. CR stands for collaborative robot. It has a 35 kg payload—the industry’s highest, ac- cording to FANUC. “Cobots,” as the new robots are often called, are com-
ing in response to customer needs. “FANUC always has an eye on the new markets, and while
the ‘collaborative’ name is very appealing to customers, we initially found that a lot of the units that were coming out [from other companies] weren’t really all that safe,” said Rick Maxwell, director of engineering, FANUC Robotics. He is lo- cated at FANUC’s headquarters for North and South America in Rochester Hills, MI. “We wanted to enter the market with a product that had a usable payload and reach and differentiate ourselves, so we went big,” he adds. In addition to the high payload, the robot’s 1813-mm reach is currently unrivaled in the market. Though the robot is green, its “yellow inside,” FANUC has said, meaning that it’s just like any other FANUC robot in terms of programming and software. The CR-35iA can be equipped with FANUC’s iRVision visual detection sys- tem, allowing the robot to locate workpieces regardless of
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size, shape, or position. Using the vision sensor, the 35- CRiA can even sort objects according to color, making for more efficient picking and tracking. The cobot can also be equipped with a 3D Area Sensor, which will create a 3D map of the machine’s surroundings. This allows for palletizing and de-palletizing, including objects of different sizes, bin picking loose, random parts, and sorting, placing and loading. This year, FANUC plans to introduce a guide-to-teach option, in which an opera- tor can physically move the robot through its task, and the robot will memorize the movements.
Ensuring safety, and looking good doing it The color of the CR-35iA isn’t just for looks – it’s a
safety feature, too. Bright green can signal a warning. And the “skin” is rubber, which will cushion the blow should the cobot bump into a human. As Maxwell explains, with indus- trial robots, there’s a lot of training involved to acclimate factory floor workers to their new colleagues, especially with regard to how and when to approach a cobot. The green of the 35-CRiA differentiates it from other robots and alerts workers that it is collaborative. “With any industrial robot, you don’t want to approach it unless you know it’s safe,” Maxwell said.
Spring 2016
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