Powerful Robots Clash at IMTS

Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor -- Design News, September 10, 2008

The battle for the title of "World's Strongest Robot" escalated here at the IMTS 2008 Show, which featured demos of two six-axis robots that up the ante on payload capacities and reach.

One of the new models, from Fanuc Robots, debuted here at the show. Called the M-2000iA/900L, this powerful robot offers a 900 kg payload. And it pairs that payload capacity with a wrist that appears super strong as well. Precise wrist strength specs weren't available at the show, but Application Engineer Mike Erickson says the robot at the show managed to handle a roughly 900-kg tractor frame whose center of gravity was 1.4m off the robot's face plate. "We picked that load up from the end to show just how strong the wrist is," he says. Aside from strength, the new robot offers huge reach with a vertical stroke of 6.2m.

In its show demo, the M-2000iA/900L worked in conjunction with other robots as part of a simulated welding cell. The big robot first positions a tractor frame near a vision-enabled R-2000iB/165F robot, which picks randomly piled brackets and places them on the tractor frame. The M-2000iA/900L then positions the tractor frame near two quad-arm ARC Mate robots to simulate a coordinated welding sequence for joining the brackets to the frame. Upon completion of the simulated weld cycle, all the robots demonstrate envelope or coordination paths. Finally, the R-2000iB robot returns the brackets to the pick station, and the cycle repeats itself. 

A payload of 900 kg doesn't quite break the record set by the KUKA Titan, which was also on display at the show. The Titan can handle payloads up to 1,000 kg, though it has a smaller reach than the Fanuc model with a vertical height of just over 4m. According to James Cooper, KUKA's director of strategic alliances, the Titan runs off nine motors, including two motors that feed a single gear unit for axes 1 and 3. Axis 2 is powered by two motors, each with its own gear unit. The Titan can withstand a static torque of 60,000 Nm and has a work envelope of 78 cubic meters.

Titan's payload record, however, has now been beaten by another Fanuc model that wasn't on display at the show. Fanuc announced it has developed a new six-axis model: the M-2000iA/1200, capable of handling 1,200-kg payloads with a 1.25m offset from the faceplate and full articulated motion at the wrist.

Regardless of which robot holds the top spot when it comes to most desirable combinations of payload capacity or work envelope, look for powerful robots in general to muscle their way onto the shop floors of industries that need to manipulate heavy parts such as complete vehicle bodies, big castings or heavy plates of glass. Robots this big are being seen as an alternative to the expensive custom lifting, conveying and dual-robot systems currently in use.