Head-Turning Trends in Industrial Automation

Robots are getting less expensive, more nimble, and smart than ever. The following examples exemplify new trends in industrial automation.

Nature has always inspired robotics. More complex, fluid movement open new avenues in manufacturing. Festo's BionicOpter is the latest example. Imitating the dragonfly, it boasts not only lightweight and fully integrated open- and closed-loop systems, but also "13 degrees of freedom." User can control the shared flapping frequency and twisting of each wing. Plus, each wing has an amplitude controller that regulates the intensity of the thrust. Control and movement is getting more refined than ever.

Toshiba Machine showed off its new TVL 500 vertical, articulated robot for only the second time in the US at Design News' Design & Manufacturing show in Schaumburg, Ill. Known as an industry leader with top-of-line robotics, Toshiba went back to the drawing board with this model, looking for ways to reduce cost without losing efficiency.

The TVL 500 features a revamped, simpler controller. That alone reduced the price $3,000. Toshiba Machine further streamlined its manufacturing process, taking advantage of standardization to reduce price point. The new robotic arm also consumes less power, saving ongoing costs in manufacturing. The final product has slower acceleration and deceleration than fancier models, but the overall speed is as good as older models. It's robotics for everyone.

Optimal Design challenged it's designers to recreate the movement of a mallard duck in flight.

FER Robotics' Active Contact Flange lets robotic arms maintain steady contact pressure over time. The flange means pressure stays the same over the course of a day and over curved surfaces. This dexterity is vital in applications like sanding, where too much pressure can gouge an object. The arm senses the material and responds automatically.

Butler, a new generation of robots from Wasserbauer GmbH, feature a built-in database, ITTIA DB SQL. To make intelligent decisions, the robots collect information from sensors and build a database outlining the surroundings. No need to pull data from an outside source; the data is right in the system, making it faster and more reliable. The robots make decisions themselves. Of course, humans can also instruct them from tablets that tap into the database.