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![Comau is expanding from automotive to logistics.](https://www.therobotreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Comau_picking.jpg)
Comau is increasing from automotive manufacturing to logistics purposes reminiscent of choose and place. Supply: Comau
If change is fixed in expertise, even established industrial automation suppliers should adapt to maintain up. Comau SpA not too long ago stated it’s shifting from conventional robotics to software-driven methods and industry-agnostic applied sciences.
The corporate has been increasing from the automotive {industry} and methods integration to new markets together with logistics and power, famous Allesandro Piscioneri, international head of strategic advertising, superior robotics, and digital segments at Comau.
“The transition has been occurring from our conventional enterprise of physique in white to new batteries for mobility, together with hydrogen cells and energy for robots,” he advised The Robotic Report. “Our enterprise is evenly divided between North America, Europe, and Asia.”
The Turin, Italy-based unit of Stellantis stated it expects the marketplace for automation to expertise a ten% compound annual development charge (CAGR) between 2022 and 2030, with a rise from 1.2 million industrial robots right this moment to 2.6 million by 2029. Comau has 50 years of expertise with producers and employs greater than 3,700 individuals in 13 nations.
The corporate additionally provides collaborative robots, wearables, vision-based methods, and software program. At Automate this month, Comau introduced new merchandise, together with its S-Household welding and supplies dealing with methods, the MI.RA/OnePicker system, and the MATE-XB and MATE-XT exoskeletons.
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Comau debuts S-Household robotic arms
The brand new S-Household of small, six-axis robotic arms can deal with payloads as much as 13 and 18 kg (28.6 and 39.6 lb.). They’re designed with hole wrists and guarded cabling to keep away from harm and the danger of contamination in delicate environments reminiscent of in meals and beverage, battery manufacturing, or electronics.
“We squeezed information from inner and exterior clients to deal with high-performance, exact manufacturing,” stated Piscioneri. “It’s additionally rated IP68 for water and mud resistance and might be mounted on the ground, wall, or ceiling.”
The S-Household is designed to be compact for tight areas and contains built-in arc and gigabit dressings, in keeping with Comau. The S-13 can attain as much as 1,960 mm (77.1 in.), and the S-18 can attain as much as 1,730 mm (68.1 in.).
![Comau demonstrated welding at Automate.](https://www.therobotreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Comau_welding.jpg)
Comau demonstrated welding with its S-Household robotic at Automate. Supply: Comau
Comau additionally exhibits selecting, identification methods
Comau’s Machine Inspection Recognition Archetypes, or MI.RA/OnePicker line, is a hardware-agnostic machine imaginative and prescient product supposed to ease robotic piece selecting. It makes use of sensors and synthetic intelligence to determine and choose random objects from bins with out counting on CAD knowledge or prior details about the gadgets’ dimension, form, colour, or different traits.
MI.RA/OnePicker is “adaptable to any model of business robotic, personalized bin, or personalized gripper,” stated Comau. This makes it appropriate for pick-and-place, kitting, sorting, e-commerce, and different warehouse purposes, it stated.
Prospects can use digital simulation instruments and predictive algorithms for optimum path administration and collision-free trajectories, Comau stated. The software program comes with Comau’s Racer5 five-axis cobot, which might swap from collaborative mode to industrial mode to work at full velocity with out the necessity for security cages, defined Piscioneri. A security evaluation continues to be vital for the payload and software.
Exoskeletons and collaboration to enhance accessibility
Comau displayed non-powered exoskeletons supposed to assist employees with repetitive lifting and overhead duties, addressing widespread labor shortages. The MATE-XB is designed to assist the decrease again, and the MATE-XT is designed for the higher again and shoulders.
![Comau MATE-XT upper-body exoskeleton.](https://www.therobotreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Comau_MATE_XT-274x300.jpg)
MATE-XT upper-body exoskeleton. Supply: Comau
As well as, Comau showcased in Chicago its partnership with Rockwell Automation in an indication cell utilizing its Racer-3 robotic and Rockwell’s Unified Robotic Management (URC) library and Emulate3D for palletizing, colour sorting, and depalletizing. All of Comau’s robots might be managed by way of PCs with its Open Controller software program.
One other collaboration is with Intrinsic, whose Flowstate improvement platform can “make the subsequent era of robotics extra accessible to all,” Comau stated. In March, Intrinsic co-founded the Open Supply Robotics Alliance (OSRA). It had acquired Robotic Working System maker Open Supply Robotics Corp. in 2022.
Talking of accessibility, Comau’s e.DO robotic was initially supposed to assist STEM (science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic) college students, however industrial clients have discovered it helpful for coaching and constructing full methods, Piscioneri stated.
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