B&R, a unit of ABB’s robotics and discrete automation business, has announced the integration of ABB robots into its automation portfolio.
According to ABB, the merging of robotics with machine control into one unified architecture will enable manufacturers to “embrace the trend of mass customisation and optimise their lot size one processes”.
As a result of the integration, B&R will now be able to supply machine builders with machine automation and robotics from a single source.
This means machine builders can buy their robots from B&R along with all control, I/O and drive components.
Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s robotics and discrete automation business, said: “We are the only company to offer industrial automation customers the entire range of integrated hardware and software solutions around control, actuation, robotics, sensing and analytics and electrification.
“This will help manufacturers increase their flexibility, at all levels including machines, to support shorter product cycles and to make much smaller lots of greater variety.”
Machine builders will be able to choose from a wide range of ABB robots, including articulated arm, SCARA, delta and palletiser robots in various sizes and with various payloads.
According to ABB, this is important for machine applications where a high degree of synchronisation with other components is required, for example with picking solutions.
Since the robot will no longer require a dedicated controller, all interfaces between the machine and the robot are eliminated, while the fact that all axes and sensors will now communicate on a common network increases precision to the microsecond range.
Integrating robotics and automation also means only one controller and one engineering system will be needed for development, diagnostics and maintenance, so there will no longer be a need for an extra control cabinet just for the robot, which will save floor space.
More user-friendly programming is another advantage. Instead of programming a robotics application in one development environment and a machine application in another, there will only be one application and one development environment. This will help to reduce development times.
What’s more, with the software components of mapp Technology, developers can set up and configure the machine application, including robotics, without knowledge of robotics languages.
The robots are programmed in B&R’s universal engineering environment, while in the digital twin the user can simulate and optimise the machine’s entire motion sequence, including the robotics, before the machine is built.
According to B&R, this makes engineering and development both faster and cheaper, which in turn lowers the threshold for machine builders looking to implement robotics in their production machinery and increases their return on investment.
