Veo Robotics, an industrial automation company which created a 3D safeguarding system for industrial robots, has announced automation services provider Gray Solutions will become a systems integrator partner.
This partnership will enable Gray Solutions to include Veo’s safety-certified product, FreeMove, as part of collaborative palletising solutions for the food and beverage sector.
“Gray Solutions understands and has the ability to integrate new technologies like 3D dynamic safety, it is part of their DNA,” said Ron Ledoux, regional sales manager at Veo Robotics.
“They understand that FreeMove is the type of disruptive technology that can significantly change how a workcell is configured by enabling any size robot to work in a collaborative manner.”
The partnership comes at a time of accelerating automation from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and warehouse distributors to address labour shortages and supply chain constraints while maintaining productivity. The Association for Advancing Automation recently reported that food and consumer goods companies are among the fastest-growing sectors for robot orders, with purchases up 29% in 2021 from 2020.
CPG companies increasingly use these robots to stack products on pallets for shipments, the collaboration said. However, even low-risk, highly automated tasks such as robotic palletising require humans to enter a workcell and interact with a robot.
Veo’s FreeMove is designed to provide 3D speed and separation monitoring in these collaborative situations, allowing robots to work alongside human co-workers safely and efficiently.
Furthermore, FreeMove’s ability to enable this human-robot collaboration with industrial robots rather than Power and Force Limited (PFL) robots means CPG manufacturing engineers don’t have to sacrifice reach, speed, or payloads, the company added.
“Veo’s FreeMove is the only product currently available with this level of safety design to unlock the true power of human-robot collaboration within the CPG market,” said Sam Janes, senior robotics engineer of Gray Solutions.
FreeMove has been certified for compliance from TÜV Rheinland with ISO 13849 for PLd, Category 3.
