KUKA customized a robot model for reporters in less than 5 minutes at the China International Import Expo

On November 7th, while walking in the intelligent and high-end equipment exhibition area of ​​the China International Import Expo, the reporter's eyes lit up when passing the orange kuka booth. This is not Kuka, which has attracted many Zhejiang manufacturing enterprises to buy and ranks among the four major robot families in the world. ?

Taking a closer look, KUKA moved a small smart factory to the "CIIE". In the transparent glass area, more than a dozen robots perform their duties, some are extending their arms to pick up components, and some are swinging left and right to quickly assemble. In the field of industrial robots in the world, Germany's KUKA and Switzerland's abb, Japan's Fanuc and Yaskawa Electric have become the four major robot families in the industry.

"This is a smart factory production line that assembles customized robot models, consisting of 4 types of 12 robots." Wilfried Eberhardt, chief marketing officer of KUKA Group, who was in front of the booth, was interviewed by reporters.

"Look, the upper left corner is the raw material area, the shelves are full of trays for storing raw materials, and the one under the shelf is the transportation robot. Once the assembly area sends out a signal that the raw materials are lacking, the transportation robot will supply it immediately. In the middle is the assembly area, These robots will quickly splicing the different components of the small model, and then send it to the laser machine to engrave the customer's name." Wilfried Eberhardt explained the operation process of the factory in detail for reporters. This time they are trying to use smart factories and people. Collaborative robots, intelligent machines, logistics, cloud and connectivity to demonstrate the specific form of Industry 4.0.

The reporter found that all the robots were placed in the glass area to work, with the exception of one gray and orange robot. Wilfried Eberhardt told reporters that this is a Cobot, a human-machine collaborative robot. "This is our lightweight human-robot collaborative robot LBR iiwa, which is sensitive to touch and can sense changes around it, so it won't hurt people without being separated by glass partitions. The lightweight body and gentle operation also make It works perfectly with people."

"Why don't we come and customize one on site!" After speaking, Wilfried Eberhardt brought a reporter to a computer and entered the words that he wanted to engrave on the model, and the production line began to customize immediately. In less than 5 minutes, a small robot model arrived in the hands of the reporter. Like the robot on the workbench, the four-axis joints of the model can operate flexibly and are very delicate.

"In recent years, many companies have been committed to the flexible production of highly personalized mass-produced products, and the demand for industrial robots in the Chinese market has also risen sharply. At present, the Chinese market has accounted for one-third of KUKA's global market share, and has maintained Rapid growth," Wilfried Eberhardt said.

"There are also many robot companies in China that are struggling to catch up. How do you see their performance?" Wilfried Eberhardt told reporters with a smile that China has such a huge market, and they are not surprised that many companies here want to speed up development to occupy the market. "Next year, KUKA will celebrate its 120th anniversary. I think experience accumulation and technology accumulation are our biggest advantages. Of course, we are also accelerating the integration and development with Chinese companies. Everyone knows that we are cooperating with Midea. In the future, we will continue to expand investment and development in China.”