Nicole Clement, Head of Advanced Automation Solutions at Comau: We launched two new solutions here. One is a product product range. It’s our new small robot platform – the S-Robot Family. It is basically a line dedicated to non-automotive material handling and continuous processes like arc welding applications. They are very light robots that have very small footprint. They are also much more energy efficient than before. They have a very user-friendly design with what we call a ‘hollow wrist’ where you can hide all the cabling to have a lesser footprint where you are installing the robots. They come with an 18 and a 13-kilogram payload.Comau is traditionally very savvy and was focused on the automotive sector. But, with the current trend in the non-automotive industry to automate, we are also adapting our portfolio into that direction. This is one of the new solutions.The other one is the new addition to our MI.RA family. It is our vision systems and solutions portfolio –  the MI.RA/OnePicker cell. It is a solution where you can pick and grasp objects based on our mirror vision system that we have incorporated into the cell. With this, we want to enter into sectors where intelligent picking is key, specifically in the logistics and warehouse automation space. Even in the automotive sector, we can use this intelligent picking solution.Finally, launched this year at automate, we have wearable exoskeletons MATE-XT and MATE-XB that complement our product portfolio, specifically for the material handling space. We launched the second exoskeleton last year at Automatica. However, it’s the first time that we are showcasing our product for the lower part of the body that is focused on reducing back pain and also helping workers bend much better and much more economically when lifting things. It is being showcased in the United States for the first time. It complements the fully automated lines with a sort of semi-automation for the workers.We also have as a demonstration of our long-standing partnership with Rockwell, which is a big player in the United States. We have a cell here demonstrating our capabilities with Rockwell. They have integrated a variety of our robot arms into their automation solutions. They are Comau’s robot arms working together with Rockwell’s drives and PLCs. The benefit is that you don’t have to re-program through our controller and into our programming language. You can directly program to sell you through the PLC of Rockwell and also with their teach pendant. So if companies already have automation equipment from Rockwell, they can simply integrate our robot arms for picking, placing, handling and a variety of applications. It is focused on making it easier to use for the end customer and leveraging equipment that they already have, making it more economically affordable as well.We are also featuring our partnership with Intrinsic. They are a low-code robot programming and automation programming company that we are partnering with. We see specifically in material handling and in logistics, there’s a lot of changeover of product. Every time you change a product you would normally have to reprogram the cell for palletizing, depalletizing and picking. With the Intrinsic partnership, we are bringing a software partner where you can also use software. You don’t have to reprogram anymore when you have a changeover of product. It helps to deal with the variability of the process. We are also developing new applications with them. We have been working with them for five years now in various sectors. We are proud to feature them here at the Automate Show for the first time. We launched our partnership at Automatica last year. (ICE TORONTO)

Fonte notizia: https://www.automationmag.com/